Monday 13/5/19

Our last day in the Yorkshire Dales and a beautiful sunny day. Rob and I decided to travel back into Richmond to see the Castle there, as we had missed it on the way in as it had been too late. TIP – last entry at heritage sites is a 1/2 hour before closing, usually at 5:00pm.

The day took a twist due to the following photo. Can you spot the two boys on the roof?

I spotted the two teenage boys larking around on the roofs of adjoining houses while taking photos of the surrounding town and market place. I stopped watching after a few minutes as I was concerned they may fall!

When we left the castle and returned to the car, we found it surrounded and parked in by four police vehicles! We quickly found out that the boys had pushed over a chimney which had crashed into the market place about 10 metres from our vehicle. The police had then given chase and now had one boy in custody with the other still giving chase!

I felt compelled to assist so spoke to the nearest officer, offering my photo. Officer Amy seemed more interested in our holiday and mentioned it again later in reply to my email with the photo, which she remarked would be very useful! I hope the boys don’t get into too much trouble!!!

We went and had coffee while we waited for the police to leave. Costa coffee has the best cappuccino we have found as a lot of cafes use auto push button machines but Costa uses espresso machines and the coffee is quite good!

When we were able to leave we set out for Middlesham Castle. The ruined castle commenced in 1190 is best known as the childhood home of Richard III, although he actually spent very little of his reign there. After it was allowed to run to ruin in the 1700 and like many other castles and Abbey’s we have seen, much of the stone was removed and used in other local village dwellings.

Driving from and back into Richmond we passed Catterick Garrison a large military base. On the way back we were swooped, quite literally by a Boeing chinook helicopter. Too quick and fast to get a photo but a thrilling to experience!

Back in Richmond we parked and took a lovely walk to Easby Abbey and back, enjoying a Jersey Ice Cream along the way.

On the way home we stopped at the local pub which we had been passing for the last few days, curious about the name we got chatting with the publican Mick who had no idea where the name originated. We had a fun hour though, sharing stories of spiders and snakes 😄.

Cracker of a day!

Sunday 12/5/19

We had looked at quite a number of ruined castles by now so I had been looking for one that was “more operational” and as luck would have it, I found a brochure for Bolton which is two thirds intact, birds of prey and wild boar demonstrations and had guest historical tour guides on this weekend so off we went.😄

Bolton Castle is a 14th-century castle located in Wensleydale, Yorkshire, England. It has never been sold and is still in the ownership of the descendants of the Scrope family.

Apparently Mary Queen of Scotts was held prisoner at Bolton for six months in 1568.

 In January 1569, Mary was removed from Bolton Castle for the last time, being taken to Tutbury in Staffordshire where she would spend much of the 18 years before her execution in 1587.

Fun fact – In fortified castles, internal stairs were set in a clock wise direction so to advantage the right handed defender and equally disadvantage the right handed attacker!

Costrell holy water vial from 1100’s

Shot with edge (used shot) thought to be from the battle of independence on 2/7/1644 found on master moor outside York.

Rob and I had so much fun at Bolton Castle. The tour with Dave was excellent with lots of history and interesting anecdotes, the coins, shot and Cottrell are his own too.

Colin in the armory was a hoot too. Both men very passionate and patriotic about England!

On the way out we visited the boar too but didn’t stay for the feeding…

Forgot to add this picture. A beautiful example of Yorkshire Moors.