Bolton Castle

History

Bolton Castle is a quadrangular castle with four corner towers surrounded by a high curtain wall. It has an inner courtyard but no central Keep. It is on rising ground overlooking Wensleydale on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales National Park.

A license to crenelate was granted in July 1379 to Sir Richard le Scrope, 1st Baron Scrope of Bolton, and Chancellor to King Richard II. By then, construction of the castle had already begun, with a contract made in 1378 with master mason John Lewyn, who also worked on Raby Castle and Dunstanburgh Castle.

The construction of Bolton Castle was completed in 1399. King Richard II was deposed and murdered, and Sir William Le Scrope was beheaded without trial. In 1405, another Scrope, Archbishop Richard Scrope of York, of the Masham branch of the family, was executed for his part in the Percy uprising against Henry IV, sometimes called Harry Hotspur's plot, although Hotspur himself had died in 1403. In 1415, the Archbishop's nephew, Henry, Lord Scrope, was executed for his part in the Southampton Plot, in which the Earl of Cambridge, Lord Scrope, and Sir Thomas Grey conspired to depose Henry V and put Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March, on the throne. His head was reportedly displayed on Micklegate Bar in York as a deterrent to traitors.

John, 8th Baron Scrope, a supporter of the Pilgrimage of Grace rebellion against Henry VIII's religious reforms, gave the Abbot of Jervaulx sanctuary in Bolton Castle. As a consequence, the King's commissioners wrote to Henry VIII in 1536 that they had set fire to the castle and that Lord Scrope had fled to Skipton Castle. The Abbot was captured and executed. The fire caused significant damage, but Sir John regained his seat in Parliament, and the castle was repaired within a few years.

The bedchamber where Mary, Queen of Scots, was held.

In 1568, Mary, Queen of Scots, fled to England after her defeat at the Battle of Langside. Queen Elizabeth of England saw Mary's arrival in England as a threat and took Mary prisoner, initially being held at Carlisle Castle under the watch of Henry, 9th Baron Scrope. Carlisle Castle was deemed unsuitable, so Mary was moved to Bolton Castle in July 1568. She was held prisoner at Bolton for six months, in the care of Sir Henry Scrope and Sir Francis Knollys. In January 1569, she was transferred to Tutbury Castle in Staffordshire during a heavy snowstorm on orders from Queen Elizabeth, who was reportedly concerned that Mary's jailer, Sir Henry Scrope, might have had designs on the throne by marrying Mary.

In 1644, Parliamentarian forces besieged Bolton Castle for almost a year during the Civil War before John Scrope and the garrison defending it finally surrendered in 1645 on honorable terms after eating all their horses to keep from starving. The castle was slighted in 1647, when Parliament destroyed the East Curtain and the Garrison Quarters, but much survived, including the Southwest Tower and West curtain wall, complete with private apartments.

In 1675, Bolton Hall was completed, and the family moved out of Bolton Castle. In 1762, the castle's Northeast Tower collapsed.

The Scrope line ended when Mary Scrope, the daughter of Emanuel Scrope, 1st Earl of Sunderland, inherited the castle in 1630 and married Charles Powlett, later 1st Duke of Bolton. The castle then passed to the Orde-Powlett family in the early 1800s, and it has never been sold. Lord Bolton owns it today.

Castle Highlights

Bolton Castle is unique in that all four doorways in the inner courtyard have a portcullis. The original entrance to the castle was through a gatehouse in the eastern wing, protected by the Southeast Tower. The gatehouse also had a portcullis at each end.

The castle has many halls and galleries to explore and retains some of its original 600-year-old beams. The most interesting room is the bedchamber where Mary, Queen of Scots, was held prisoner after fleeing to England in 1568. The solar was a private sitting room used by the family, but also given to Mary, Queen of Scots, along with the bedchamber during her imprisonment.

The Great Chamber.

The great hall is also a room of significance, used by successive Lords to entertain in lavish style; the Lord's dinner would consist of two or three courses with wine or ale. The Minstrel's Gallery was located at the east end of the Hall, where doors also lead to the Butteries and the Great Kitchen. The antiquary John Leland described an astronomical clock in the courtyard and a hall hearth whose smoke escaped through passages in the walls, and Sir Francis Knollys remarked that the castle had the highest walls of any house he had seen.

The ground floor contains the Forge and the Armourer's Workshop, which is responsible for all the metalwork that needs to be hammered into shape, like a present-day blacksmith. In the window recess at the far end of the Forge are two doorways leading to the great hall and the Armourer's private chamber.

The piscina with cinquefoil tracery in the chapel.

The chapel was completed around 1395 and is dedicated to St. Anne, Mother of the Virgin Mary. Although ruined now with no roof, the chapel would have had vast vestments and altar furnishings, with the tall perpendicular windows and their cinquefoil tracery, once glazed. Three priest cells are in the Buttress Tower leading off from the chapel.

The castle gardens are also fun to explore and contain a hedge maze, and the castle has a tea room, a gift shop, and daily falconry displays. Bolton Castle has appeared in films and television, including Ivanhoe in 1952, Elizabeth, Heartbeat, and All Creatures Great and Small.

Bolton Castle can be thoroughly explored in 2-4 hours. Middleham Castle is close enough to also visit on the same day. It is not a castle, but close to Bolton Castle is Aysgarth Falls, which is well worth a visit. These picturesque waterfalls were used in the movie "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves," where Kevin Costner's Robin Hood did a stick battle with Little John while trying to cross the river.

Bolton Castle is also haunted.