Scarborough Castle

Scarborough Castle's keep viewed towards the town's North Bay. The inner bailey includes a well, and is surrounded by a curtain wall (left) and another stone wall which defended the outer bailey (right).

Scarborough Castle stands on a cliff top overlooking the town of Scarborough, North Yorkshire, in England. The earliest fortifications on the site were built in the 1130s, but the present stone castle dates from the 1150s. Over the centuries, several other structures were added, with mediaeval monarchs investing heavily in what was then an important fortress that guarded the Yorkshire coastline, Scarborough's port trade, and the north of England from Scottish or continental invasion. It was also fortified and defended for various civil wars, sieges and conflicts, as kings fought with rival barons, northern rebels, would-be usurpers of the crown and republican forces. Once occupied by garrisons and governors who at times menaced the town, the castle is today a ruin, but still attracts many visitors to climb the battlements, take in the views and enjoy the accompanying interactive exhibition and special events run by English Heritage.

Features

(CC) Image: Dongyi Liu
The barbican (main gateway, left) today, close to a stone bridge. Unusually for a castle of this kind, the inner bailey is reached from the entrance first, via the bridge, with the outer bailey beyond. The view is towards Scarborough's North Bay.

Because the castle sits atop a sheer cliff 300 feet (92 metres) high, only the south-western slopes leading up to the entrance needed to be defended; the outer thirteenth-century curtain wall, 230 yards (210 metres) long, with its (originally twelve) hollow towers for archers therefore do not completely surround the inner buildings of the castle. The cliffs provide a natural defence, and even today the castle is sometimes closed to visitors due to high winds. The entrance consists of a barbican, or fortified gateway, completed in the fourteenth century and flanked by two half-circular towers. Modifications to the barbican have removed evidence of the old portcullis （still observable at the time of a 1538 survey) and its grooves - some of many examples of changes to the castle over the centuries, which is itself a replacement for a twelfth-century fortification built around the remains of an eleventh-century Anglo-Saxon chapel.

Beyond the main gateway, a stone bridge which was rebuilt in 1337-1338 leads first to the inner bailey (courtyard), which would have been used for workshops, offices, a kitchen, and a storage area. Unusually, the outer bailey is reached beyond these, separated from the inner bailey by a ditch and stone wall. This contrasts with the reverse arrangement of baileys found in other castles of this time.

The 86-feet-tall (26 metres) twelfth-century keep and the castle's 150-feet-deep (46 metres) well occupy the inner bailey. The keep, with its entrance on the first floor (i.e. the second level from the ground), survives to this day only as a shell, with the west wall missing thanks to a seventeenth-century bombardment. With its flat roof this square three-storey building would have been over 100 feet tall (31 metres), and housed dungeons below as well as private chambers above. The walls range from 10 to 15 feet (3 to 4.5 metres) in thickness, the west wall being strongest, and there are several windows, some blocked up. Each floor, except the basement, was divided into several rooms, and there are the remains of a hearth in the west wall.

The baileys are separated by a wall, ditch and bank, with two defended gateways. This larger bailey would have seen entertaining events staged, vegetables grown and animals kept; there was also a graveyard and St. Mary's Chapel, which has completely disappeared, though the remains of the old Anglo-Saxon chapel on the site of the old Roman signal station can still be seen (see early history of the site, below). A twelfth-century mediaeval building, 100 feet (47 metres) in length and excavated in 1888, also stood in the outer bailey to accommodate royal visitors, with several rooms for preparing and storing food, or used as private chambers; this was demolished sometime before a survey of 1538, which makes no mention of it, and only the foundations remain.

The 'King's Chambers' in the outer bailey, also known as Mosdale Hall after a fourteenth-century governor of the castle, are a striking example of how the castle has been much-altered over the years. Originally built in the thirteenth century, the two-storey building at the curtain wall was converted to red-brick barracks in the eighteenth century, probably also using stone from the castle walls. The red brickwork is clearly visible next to the much earlier outer stone wall, as viewed from Scarborough's South Bay. The thirteenth-century Queen's Tower in the wall nearby also saw different uses: initially luxurious accommodation with private latrines, a porch added in 1320 and large windows with bay views, two of these windows were later blocked up, and another changed to a cupboard with a rubbish chute. Surveys and historical records also agree that the curtain wall incorporated other towers which collapsed or were reworked over the centuries, such as the Constable's Tower (taken down in 1425-1429, with payments accordingly made to a mason for carrying out the work and "ryding from Duresme to Scardeburgh") and the Cockhyll or Charles's Tower (the seventeenth-century prison of George Fox), which no longer exists. Likewise, the South Steel Battery, a natural promontory on which cannons were sited from 1643, has been eroded away.

Events and attractions

(CC) Image: James Stringer
The eighteenth-century Master Gunner's House now hosts a museum and café.

See also development of the castle as a tourist attraction

The castle site, managed by English Heritage since 1984, is host to various events, usually in summertime, such as pirate and Robin Hood-themed activities. Needless to say, the castle grounds are also reputed to be haunted - by three ghosts, among them a Roman soldier at the signal station site. The eighteenth-century Master Gunner's House now serves as a museum including an interactive exhibition whose centrepiece is a Bronze Age sword. This was discovered in 1980 at the castle and forms the centrepiece of English Heritage's £250,000 investment in making the site a strong tourist attraction. The building also houses a café.

History

See also a timeline of Scarborough Castle

The castle's ten centuries of history have seen it move from a major fortification in the Middle Ages to a well-loved ruin today. It played an important role in several important English events, and survived a series of major sieges as its ownership passed between rival forces. The site itself was far from barren before the establishment of the castle, with activity dating back more than a thousand years before the first stones of the mediaeval castle were laid.

Early history of the site

Archaeological evidence of Iron Age and later settlements from around 900-500 BCE possibly suggest something as extensive as a full hill fort on the headland, though evidence of this is yet to be found. Among various finds dating back 2,500 years, a Bronze Age sword is on display in the castle exhibition; this is thought to have been a ritual offering.

(CC) Image: David Friel
Roman soldiers were stationed on the site of the castle centuries before the first stone foundations were laid. Today, occasional Roman infantry re-enactments take place in the castle grounds, such as this one in 2007.

Prior to the establishment of the castle in the twelfth century, a fourth-century Roman signal station stood on the site at the cliff edge. The station was built to warn of approaching hostile vessels, and took advantage of a natural source of fresh water that later became known as the 'Well of Our Lady'. However, there is very little to show that the Roman presence at the headland was anything other than a small company; some pottery has been discovered, but nothing to suggest extensive fortification prior to the mediaeval castle.

The Anglo-Saxons built a chapel on the station site around the year 1000, the remains of which are still visible. This is said to have been destroyed by William the Conqueror's ally Harald Hardrada in 1066 - a much later Icelandic poem claims that an early Viking settlement around the harbour was burnt down in 1066 by Hardrada's forces, who reputedly built a large bonfire on the headland to supply burning brands to hurl at the villagers below. This fate of the settlement, if it existed at all, is supported by the fact that Scarborough is not mentioned in the Domesday Book (a survey or census of eleventh-century England). However, there is no archaeological evidence of such an inferno, nor any of the Viking presence; the first clear evidence of the earliest town coincides with the establishment of the surviving stone castle a century later, around 1157-1164, following the development of a small settlement around a wooden fortress which the stone castle replaced.

The original wooden castle, 1138-1157

The current ruins of Scarborough Castle were not the first attempt to establish a fortification on the headland. First to indisputably do so was William le Gros, Count of Aumale ('the Fat', died 1179), grand-nephew of William the Conqueror (reigned 1066-1087). A powerful Anglo-Norman baron, William le Gros built a castle following his receipt of the Earldom of York from King Stephen (reigned 1135-1154) in 1138. This was for his victory at the 'Battle of the Standard' that year, when he led a force of Yorkshiremen that repulsed a Scottish invasion. He may also have re-founded the town of 'Scardeburg' itself, though there is little evidence of this. As with other castles, however, there would have been at least a small settlement nearby.

Some information on the establishment of the first castle has survived in the chronicle of William of Newburgh, a monk who in the 1190s wrote about the foundation of the castle. According to him, William le Gros built his fortress of wood, with a palisade wall (i.e. of wooden stakes) on the landward side, and a gate tower at the entrance. This motte and bailey castle subsequently disappeared, with only a small, raised mound (the motte) visible today, in the inner bailey. It is not surprising that the first castle was built of wood, since at the time only royalty had the finances to build castles of stone. Furthermore, the motte would not have borne the weight of a stone castle.

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Henry II was responsible for much of the original stone buildings of the castle; he began the work in the 1150s, and it cost him £682.

The fate of these original fortifications is unclear. Henry II (reigned 1154-1189) ordered all royal castles returned to the Crown, and also had a policy of destroying most of the castles built without royal permission - the so-called 'Adulterine Castles' - that had appeared during Stephen's chaotic reign. Initially, William resisted the call to hand over Scarborough, which he had built on a royal manor, until Henry's forces arrived at York. The wooden castle soon vanished - William of Newburgh, writing near the time, claimed that the structure had decayed through age and the elements, battered beyond repair on the windswept headland. Later interpretations view this as implausible and argue that Henry wanted to stamp his mark on Scarborough, demolishing William's fort and creating a much stronger stone complex.

The stone castle, c.1157-1216

From about 1157, Henry II completely rebuilt the castle, using stone to establish the three-storey keep which survives to this day, and a ditch and palisade wall to protect the inner bailey. Much construction occurred between 1159 and 1169, when the keep was built and a stone wall replaced the palisade division. By the end of Henry's reign in 1189, the grand total of £682, 15 shillings and threepence had been spent on the castle - a fortune at that time - mostly between 1157 and 1164. Entries on the Pipe Rolls (English Treasury records) from 1158 to 1164 record money spent on the keep, while other payments are described as "in operatione de Scardeburc", though these are unlikely to have been sufficient to complete the wall.

Both William le Gros and Henry II would have recognised the economic significance of building a castle at Scarborough, as east coast ports were much in-use for trade. Henry granted Scarborough the status of a royal borough, and the castle was an attractive assignment for would-be governors, highly sought-after by powerful nobles of the day loyal to the King. Overall, Henry's interest in the castle seems to have been a strategy to weaken William's power over much of Yorkshire, and is one story in the long struggle for power between the monarchy and the barons which occurred for two centuries after the Norman Conquest.

Strife continued during the time of King John (reigned 1199-1216), during which time the castle developed its military role. While Richard I (reigned 1189-1999) had spent nothing on the castle, John ensured that it was a comfortable residence for himself and his retinue. John's rule was strongly opposed by the northern barons, so the castle at Scarborough also needed to be fortified as a strategic stronghold. John visited the castle four times during his reign, and spent a considerable sum on completing its defences, including the curtain wall during 1202-1212 on the west and south sides, and a new hall called the 'King's Chambers', later Mosdale Hall. In total, John spent £2,291, three shillings and fourpence on the castle. This included £780 that was mostly earmarked for repairing the keep roof in 1211-1212; John spent more on the castle than any other monarch. John granted the townsfolk certain economic freedoms - for a hefty tax - which ensured their loyalty to the Crown while the rest of Yorkshire turned against him; he also had a small fleet of ships stationed in the harbour below. However, the castle played little role against the barons, though it maintained a well-armed garrison loyal to John.

Development and decline, 1216-1311

The barbican today; this gateway was completed in the fourteenth century.

Improvements continued under Henry III (reigned 1216-1272). By this time, Scarborough was a thriving port, and though he never visited the castle, Henry spent a considerable sum on its upkeep. Around 1240-1250, he installed a new barbican, or fortified gateway, which cost £81, seven shillings and threepence. It consists of two towers flanking the gateway, with two more towers protecting the approach. These were completed in 1343, and have been much-modified since. At this time, the castle was also a powerful base which an unscrupulous governor could abuse: Geoffrey de Neville, for example, who was governor for 20 years in the thirteenth century, used the garrison to seize port goods. For these he paid only half the market price, and anyone who complained was jailed in the castle. Furthermore, since governors were not required to reside in the castle, they often pocketed funds rather than use them for repairs.

By the mid-to-late thirteenth century, the defences were starting to decay, with floorboards rotten, roof tiles missing and armouries bare of weaponry. A storm also damaged the roof in 1237. Corruption continued among the castle's custodians, who could act with impunity as the castle was outside the jurisdiction of the local borough. In the 1270s, governor William de Percy blocked the main road into Scarborough and imposed illegal tolls. His garrison also ran a scheme to lure local pigs into the castle and then charge the owners for their safe return. From 1273 to 1276 the castle was returned to the king due to the burgesses (local officials) assaulting the constable of the castle; on paying a fine of £40, the castle was restored.

Despite its decline, in 1265 the castle was still committed to Prince Edward, later Edward I (reigned 1272-1307), and used to hold court in 1275 and 1280. In 1295, Welsh hostages from his campaigns to subjugate Wales were held at the castle. His son Edward II (reigned 1307-1327) also imprisoned some of his Scottish enemies there in 1311.

Piers Gaveston besieged, 1312

Scarborough Castle's next appearance in major English history came in 1312, during the reign of Edward II. By this time, the castle was a major fortification, and had a new bakehouse, brewhouse and kitchens in the inner bailey, installed by Henry de Percy, who occupied the castle from 1308. The castle was therefore thought a natural place for the King's favourite knight, the Gascon Piers Gaveston, to seek sanctuary when pursued by the barons who had imposed the Ordinances of 1311 to curb the King's power, and who now saw Gaveston as a threat to their interests. In April 1312, Edward made Gaveston the governor of Scarborough Castle, but his tenure would be brief; in May, the Earls of Pembroke and Warenne, together with Henry de Percy, besieged and took the castle. Despite its strong defences, it fell quickly due to lack of provisions. Gaveston was promised safe escort from the castle, but on the journey south was captured by the Earl of Warwick and subsequently killed. Scarborough fared little better; Edward would later punish the town for not supporting Gaveston by revoking its royal privileges and placing it under the direct rule of appointed governors, an act that led to years of unrest and complaints that the castle's keepers took goods without payment. Scarborough would not be restored to local rule until 1348.

Further assaults and decay, 1318-1635

The castle was besieged several times in the following centuries, playing its part in rebellions and civil war. for example, in　May 1318 it survived the sacking and burning of the town by the Scots king Robert the Bruce and Sir James Douglas. During the Hundred Years War (1337-1453), Scarborough was an important port for the wool trade, so was attacked several times. At this time, the town's merchants were regular victims of piracy, and many languished in foreign jails. With ongoing rumours of a French invasion, a 1393 inquiry into the state of the castle led to repairs in 1396 and 1400. Henry VI (reigned 1422-1461; 1470-1471) would also order major repairs over 1424-1429, and Richard III (reigned 1483-1485) was the last monarch to enter its grounds. He resided at the castle in 1484 while forming a fleet to fight the Tudors, a struggle he lost along with his life the following year.

Following assaults by France and Scotland in the early sixteenth century, in 1536 Robert Aske unsuccessfully tried to take the castle during the Pilgrimage of Grace, a revolt against the Dissolution of the Monasteries and Henry VIII's (reigned 1509-1547) break with the Roman Catholic Church. Repairs were made the following year, and in 1538 some of the lead of the towers was used by the keeper, Sir Ralph Eure (Evers), to make a brewing vessel; Eure also reported that some of the walls had fallen down.

In 1557, forces loyal to Thomas Wyatt the younger, who opposed Mary I (reigned 1553-1558) and Catholicism, took the castle by entering disguised as peasants. Their leader, Thomas Stafford, held the castle for only three days, and was subsequently executed for high treason on Tower Hill.

In 1569, Scarborough Castle was garrisoned against a predicted Scottish invasion during the Rising of the North (Northern Rebellion), but the attack never came. At this time, the castle's coffers were swelling thanks to piracy carried out in the name of Elizabeth I (reigned 1558-1603), but the money was rarely spent on repairs. Overall, the sixteenth century and the opening decades of the seventeenth were a time of decay for the castle. A 1538 survey by Sir Marmaduke Constable and Sir Ralph Ellerker had found the buildings dilapidated and in want of a brewhouse, bakery and horse mill. They also found it lacked ammunition for its guns, though it retained a "praty chapell". Though the castle saw some repairs under Henry VIII, Mary I and Elizabeth I, this did not halt the decline, especially once the crowns of England and Scotland were united in 1603, and the war with Spain ended the following year. 1602 was the last yeat the castle was garrisoned, and in the following years the site became derelict. A 1619 local survey by William St Quintin and Stephen Hutchinson found further decay at the castle, and in the 1620s it left Crown hands and became the property of the Thompson family. By 1630, the castle had spent many years as a cattle pasture, rabbit warren and dangerous playground for local children. In 1626 and 1635, as Scarborough endured further incursions from Dunkirkers and the Dutch Republic, with both sides plundering English boats, the Privy Council was informed that the castle was incapable of effectively defending the town's harbour in the event of the North Sea battles between Dunkirk and Holland spilling over onto England's east coast. Despite all this ruin, however, the castle was soon set to become one of England's most important fortress for one last time.

The Civil War sieges, 1642-1648

The entire west wall of the castle's keep, as viewed from the barbican gateway, was destroyed in 1645 by artillery bombardment during the English Civil War.

The English Civil War (1642-1651) saw the town, castle and its strategic supply port on the side of Charles I (reigned 1625-1649), with 700 Royalist soldiers led by Sir Hugh Cholmley - who originally occupied the castle as a Parliamentarian loyal to Oliver Cromwell in September 1642, but swapped sides in March 1643. The Parliamentarians saw Scarborough as the most valuable Royalist prize because it was the only port not under their dominion. The castle changed hands seven times between 1642 and 1648, and was refortified on Cholmley's orders, including establishment of the the South Steel Battery for artillery. When Lord Fairfax's Parliamentary forces reached the edge of the town in August 1644, Cholmley bought time to upgrade the castle defences by opening surrender negotiations, an act that would allow him to hold out for a year.

On 18th February 1645, Sir John Meldrum took the town, cutting off any escape routes by land or sea and delivering the last Royalist port for Parliament. The same day, Cholmley retreated into the castle and refused to give in, so the Parliamentarians prepared for what would be a five-month siege - one of the most bloody of the Civil War, with almost continuous fighting. The Parliamentary forces set up what was then the largest cannon in the country, the Cannon Royal, in the twelfth-century St. Mary's Church below the castle, and proceeded to fire 56-60lb (27kg) cannonballs that pounded the castle's defences. In turn, the church was extensively damaged over the three days of fighting. The bombardment partially destroyed the castle keep, but without the outer walls breached, the Parliamentary forces were unable to take the castle immediately afterwards, and indeed had inadvertently supplied the defenders with a large pile of rubble that was used for cover and ammunition. The Royalists moved against the artillery battery, and the Parliamentary forces retreated in some disarray. There followed a period of particularly bloody hand-to-hand fighting around the barbican gateway, when neither side took prisoners; ultimately, Sir John Meldrum was mortally wounded.

By July 1645, however, the tide was turning in the Parliamentarians' favour: Sir Matthew Boynton had replaced Meldrum, favouring cannon fire from land and sea over infantry assault. Bombardment, scurvy, lack of water, gunpowder shortages and the threat of starvation meant that the castle's surrender came on 25th July 1645, with only 25 men fit to fight. Fewer than half the original 500 defenders emerged alive.

Initially repaired and rearmed for Parliament with a company of 160 to hold the castle and man the gun batteries, the castle returned to Royalist hands when the soldiers went unpaid; Matthew Boynton, its new governor and son of the elder Boynton, declared for the King on 27th July 1648. This led to a second siege which brought the castle back under Parliamentary control on 19th December, with the garrison defeated as much by the oncoming winter as by the Parliamentary forces. The castle was later used as a prison for those deemed enemies of the Commonwealth of England, the country's brief period of republicanism; the shell of the keep survives, minus the west wall, which was destroyed in the bombardment. The castle was returned to the Crown following the restoration of the monarchy.

Imprisonment of George Fox, 1665-1666

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George Fox, who founded the Quakers, was imprisoned in Scarborough Castle in the seventeenth century.

The castle continued as a prison from the 1650s, with the garrison increased in 1658, and in 1662 it returned to Crown hands. Perhaps its most famous inmate was the founder of the Quakers, George Fox (1624-1691), who was imprisoned there from April 1665 to September 1666 for religious activities viewed as troublesome for Charles II (reigned 1660-1685). Fox complained that "I had neither chimney nor firehearth. This being to the seaside and much open, the wind drove the rain in forcibly, so that the water came up over my bed and ran about the room that I was fain to skim it up with a platter". Fox's prison, the Cockhyll Tower near the cliff edge, is no longer standing. This was a time of decline for the castle; James II (reigned 1686-1688) did not garrison it, his forces gambling that its defences would be sufficient to resist any Dutch invasion, and after the town was seized for William of Orange during the Glorious Revolution that ousted James, no improvements were made.

The castle refortified, 1745-1815

The eighteenth-century red-brick barracks (centre) are visible from the other side of Scarborough's South Bay.

The Jacobite Rebellion of 1745, part of a series of uprising aimed at restoring the Catholic House of Stuart to the throne, saw the castle refortified with gun batteries and barracks for 120 officers and men by 1746. The keep was pressed into service as a powder magazine, storing gunpowder. In 1748, the Master Gunner's house was also built, which served as accommodation until the early twentieth century and today hosts the exhibition on the castle.

The castle saw no action during this time, though during the American Revolutionary War in 1779 the people of Scarborough were able to use Castle Hill as a vantage point to view a decisive sea battle between the victorious American frigate Bonhomme Richard under John Paul Jones, and the British ships HMS Seraphis and the Countess of Scarborough. Later still, the threat of French invasion during the Napoleonic Wars led to the permanent establishment of a garrison, which remained until the mid-nineteenth century; French prisoners were also held at the castle during 1796.

The World Wars

During World War I, Scarborough was used for British propaganda purposes following the bombardment of the town by two warships of the German Empire, Derfflinger and Von der Tann, on 16th December 1914. This killed 19 people and also damaged the castle's keep, barracks and curtain walls. The barracks were demolished due to the extensive damage wrought by the bombardment. In World War II, the castle served as a secret listening post.

Development of the castle as a tourist attraction

The second half of the nineteenth century saw the castle emerge as a tourist attraction. Foundations of a mediaeval hall were excavated in 1888, and an 1890 photo shows visitors using the grounds to practice archery. By 1920, the site was sufficiently important to be taken into public ownership by the Ministry of Works. The demolition of the eighteenth-century barracks exposed the mediaeval foundations of Mosdale Hall, which can be seen to this day. In 1984, the castle was placed in the hands of English Heritage, which runs a museum at the site featuring a Bronze Age sword discovered nearby in 1980 (see events and attractions, above).