Built in around 1220-30 by Ranulph de Blundevil, Earl of Lincoln and Chester, Bolingbroke Castle is principally known for being the birthplace in 1367 of Henry of Bolingbroke, son of John of Gaunt and Blanche of Lancaster and the future King Henry IV. Both parts. During the 15th and 16th centuries, Bolingbroke Castle was an
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Burton in Lonsdale is a small village at the western edge of North Yorkshire, close to the borders with Lancashire and Cumbria. At the time of the Norman Conquest, Burton (Borctune) was part of the manor of Whittington and owned by Tostig – who was slain at the Battle of Stamford Bridge. Its castle, locally known
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The village of Avebury is surrounded by an enormous prehistoric stone circle and at the centre of extraordinary set of Neolithic and Bronze Age sites that apparently represents a vast sacred landscape. These include West Kennet Avenue, West Kennet Long Barrow, The Sanctuary, Windmill Hill, and Silbury Hill. These sites can be reached by foot
Lowther Castle is a dramatic Victorian ruin, but with a much longer history. The massive estate fell into disrepair, was used for tank training during the Second World War and, since the 1950s, the castle itself has been open to the elements. The ruins have now been stabilised and turned into gardens, the original gardens
Caerlaverock Castle, Britain’s only triangular castle, occupies a strategic location on the Scottish side of the Solway. There was once a British fort on the site, later a medieval one, before the forerunner of the present ruin was built in a drier location a few yards away in the 1270s. It was, famously, besieged by
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The ruins of Bayham Old Abbey are relatively remote – and would have been even more so when it was founded in 1208 by Robert de Thurnham, for the Premonstratensian order of ‘white canons’. It existed for 300 years until being dissolved by Cardinal Wolsey in 1525. Wolsey wanted to use its endowments for other
Beyond some village cottages on a rocky promontory, overlooking the Teifi Gorge is Cilgerran Castle. It is a strategic position, fortified by at least 1108 by the Norman, Gerald of Windsor. It was captured by the Welsh in 1164, retaken by William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, in 1204, recaptured by the Welsh during Llywelyn the
This is the excavated remains of the Roman fort of Segedunum at Wallsend – the end of the Wall – which lay underneath the famous Wallsend shipyards and the houses occupied by the workers. At firsdt glance, it may seem as though there’s not much there, but the layers of history are fascinating. There is
Brougham Castle is situated in a beautiful, but defensive, spot on the south bank of the river Eamont, next to the long-abandoned Roman fort of Brocavum. Situated in medieval border country, Brougham Castle saw action in the wars between England and Scotland, and was captured by the Scots. However, a walk round today includes hints
Richborough, which the Romans called Rutupiae, is a fascinating, multi-layered, site. Now 2 miles inland, 2,000 years ago it was on the coast where Emperor Claudius’s invading army landed in 43AD. They built a defensive barrier on the site, which then became a supply base, developing into a significant port, town and major point of
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Fotheringhay Castle was birthplace of the future King Richard III on 2 October 1452 and the place of execution for Mary, Queen of Scots on 8 February 1587, but sadly little remains of it. The first castle was probably built by Simon de Senlis (St Liz), Earl of Northampton and Huntingdon, around the year 1100.
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The once great fortified Abbey of St Benet’s, or St Benet’s at Holme, covered an area of 38 acres, had extensive fishponds, owned 28 churches, had property in 76 parishes and the right to dig peat in 12 of them. Now the most visible remains are those of a gatehouse, with a ruined windmill built
