Skipton Castle, North Yorkshire

Skipton Castle Gatehouse

Skipton (underlined in red on the map above) is only 42.5 miles from York and 58.6 miles from the Manchester airport. York to Hawes is 68 miles, and Hawes to Skipton is 42 miles. Although the whole area is relatively small, you could spend months there without exhausting all the fascinating places there are to explore.

One of them is Skipton Castle.

Skipton Castle in North Yorkshire

Watchtower (right)

Just to give some perspective: Gus is about 6'2"

Lady Anne Clifford's yew tree which she planted in the courtyard in 1659!

You remember:  about 40 years after the Pilgrims landed in America. 

From the brochure: Skipton Castle is one of the best-preserved and most complete medieval castles in England, despite enduring a three-year siege in the Civil War. After the Battle of Marston Moor it was the only Royalist stronghold left in the north. At last the governor, Sir John Mallory, negotiated a surrender, and on 21st December 1645 the garrison marched out with colours flying and trumpets sounding. Cromwell ordered the removal of the castle roofs; but only ten years later the owner, Lady Anne Clifford, was allowed to replace them - on condition they were not strong enough to bear firing cannon.

March means daffodils

Clifford coat of arms at the castle entrance

The hearth

Whoa! This place is built like...a....CASTLE!!

Two of the cannon that protected Skipton Castle during the Civil War

Windows in the kitchen

Hefty rafters in the kitchen. You'll notice I spent a lot of time in the kitchen, but I couldn't seem to locate the KitchenAid mixer or automatic dishwasher.

Chapel of St. John the Evangelist

Looking out from Chapel of St. John the Evangelist

 The granary

 My favorite American tourists

 Canal and walkway (old towpath?) behind the castle

The Watchtower 

Friendly natives who pointed the way to Sheep Street

 Narrow boats in the Skipton canal basin. They reminded me of the Inspector Morse episode, 'The Wench is Dead,' one of my favorites!

And now, if you'd like to see a really gorgeous photo of a narrow boat and ducks in the Skipton canal basin, see This pic by Jenny at Saltaire Daily Photo.

I need to return to Skipton to get more photos of the narrow boats, the Woolly Sheep Inn with its great British pub ambience, and the Wednesday market.