Barnard Castle
History
Barnard Castle was built on a cliff overlooking the River Tees between 1095 and 1125 by Guy de Balliol to protect a strategic crossing point. Guy supported King William II in suppressing a rebellion in 1090 and was granted land in northern England as a reward. The first castle at Barnard was a wooden ringwork castle with a stone gatehouse, surrounded by deep ditches to the south and east. Guy de Balliol died in 1133 without an heir.
Between 1125 and 1185, Guy's nephew Bernard Balliol and Bernard's son, also named Bernard, rebuilt and extended the castle in stone to become one of the largest castles in northern England. It was from them that the castle got its name. Bernard II added the town ward and middle ward, including the North Gate, Brackenbury Tower, and Constable Tower. Hugh de Balliol, who inherited the castle in 1205, rebuilt the hall in the inner ward in stone, and the Round Tower at its northern end dates from around 1200.
The arched gateway into the castle.
In January 1216, King John stayed at the castle after leading a military campaign against northern rebels. Barnard Castle was also besieged in the summer of 1216 by Alexander II, king of Scotland, but the siege was unsuccessful. During the siege, the Northern Baron, Eustace de Vesci, lord of Alnwick Castle, ventured too close to Barnard Castle and was shot by a crossbowman from the garrison inside the castle and died of his wounds.
The castle remained in the Balliol family until 1296, when the family's most notable descendant, John de Balliol II, was deposed as king of Scotland. The Balliols also endowed scholars at Oxford, which led to the founding of Balliol College. After that, Antony Bek, Bishop of Durham, claimed the castle and its lands.
The ruined hall range above the River Tees.
Around 1300, King Edward I of England granted the castle to Guy de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick. The Earls of Warwick passed it down to their descendants for the next 164 years, through to Richard Neville, Warwick the king-maker, who gained it in 1446 through his wife Anne, the sister of Henry Beauchamp, Duke of Warwick. In 1315, the castle's keeper, John le Irreys, abducted Lady Matilda Clifford, and Edward II sent troops to rescue her. Thomas de Beauchamp, who held the castle for 40 years from 1329, modernized the great hall. After Richard Neville's death at the Battle of Barnet in 1471, the bishops of Durham tried once again to recover the castle. Instead, disregarding the claims of Anne, Neville's widow, the lordship passed to Richard Plantagenet, Duke of Gloucester, later King Richard III, who was her son-in-law, married to her daughter Anne Neville. Richard's "White Boar" emblem can be seen carved on a window soffit in the west wall of the inner bailey. Richard also added the oriel window of the great chamber overlooking the river. A similar boar appears on a window of nearby St Mary's Church.
In 1536, Barnard Castle was surrendered to rebels by Constable Robert Bowes during the Pilgrimage of Grace. Robert had success in appearing to support both sides of the cause, becoming one of the rebel leaders only to later revert to the king's service and restore royal control in the area.
The curtain wall above the ditch.
In December 1569, the castle was besieged again for 11 days during the Rising of the North, an effort to replace Queen Elizabeth I with Mary Queen of Scots. The rebels sent 5,000 men to attack the castle, garrisoned by 700-800 troops. After six days, they captured the outer bailey and, soon after that, the town ward. After 11 days, George Bowes surrendered the castle after the rebels cut the water pipes from the reservoir and desertions weakened his garrison.
In 1603, James I gave the castle to his favorite, Robert Carr, later Earl of Somerset. After Somerset's disgrace in 1615, the castle was transferred to the Prince of Wales, who sold it to the City of London in 1626. In 1630, it was resold to Sir Henry Vane, who made Raby Castle his main residence and dismantled much of Barnard to use its materials in an extensive rebuilding program there. Lord Barnard placed the ruins in the guardianship of the Ministry of Works in 1952, and English Heritage has cared for them since 1984.
From the 18th century, antiquarians and tourists admired the ruins and their setting above the Tees. In the 1840s, a former ostler named Frank Shields even lived in the Round Tower, posing as a hermit.
Castle Highlights
Barnard Castle is just a ruin today, but the ruins are significant and allow visitors to understand how grand of a castle it was. It can be challenging to find as the town next to the castle is also called Barnard Castle, and the signs showing the way to the castle need to be better placed. If you start at the River Tees, you can't miss the castle.
The Balliol Tower and the ruined hall.
The best views of the castle are from the river, so spend some time in that area before or after visiting the castle. The castle's most prominent feature is the great tower in the inner ward, known as the Balliol Tower (English Heritage calls it the Round Tower), which is 11 meters in diameter and 12 meters high.
Most of the ruins are contained in the town ward and inner ward. These include the Brackenbury Tower, named after Sir Robert Brackenbury, an important supporter of King Richard III, who served as his constable of the Tower of London and died with King Richard at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485.
Barnard Castle can be explored in a half day, including time along the River Tees. To make a full day of visiting castles, Bowes Castle and Raby Castle are close enough to see on the same day. Ensure Raby Castle is open before you visit, as it is still inhabited and only open to visitors for a limited time during the summer.
Barnard Castle is also haunted.
