Richmond Castle

11th-century Norman castle on a crag above the River Swale

Address Tower Street, Richmond DL10 4QW

Richmond Castle was begun in 1071 by Alan Rufus, a Breton kinsman of William the Conqueror, and is one of the oldest Norman stone castles in England. Its huge rectangular keep — built around 1170 and still close to its original height of thirty metres — stands on a cliff above a bend in the Swale and dominates the town from every angle.

The interior is now a ruin, but the keep is intact and you can climb to the top for a sweeping view of Swaledale. Look out for the Cockpit, a small medieval garden inside the walls, and the cell block where conscientious objectors were imprisoned in 1916 — their pencil graffiti survives on the walls and forms one of the most affecting parts of the visit. Run by English Heritage.

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A story
The castle gives its name to every other Richmond in the world. When Henry VII granted his uncle Henry FitzRoy the manor of Sheen in 1501 he renamed it Richmond after his family's Yorkshire estate, and the Richmond name then travelled out with English settlers — to Virginia, to London's outskirts, and to dozens of towns across the United States.

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