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8 Best Castles In North Yorkshire
Three quite different buildings hide behind one word here, and the difference shows the moment you walk in. Scarborough Castle and Richmond Castle are ruins: walls, grass, weather and imagination, with very little roof over anybody's head. Skipton Castle, Bolton Castle and Knaresborough Castle keep more of themselves, so there are rooms to go into and stairs to climb — narrow, spiral, and a genuine problem with a pushchair. Castle Howard and Ripley Castle are grand houses rather than fortresses, and they ask for quieter behaviour than a ruin does. Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal is filed here as well and is neither, but of the eight it has the most room to run about in.
Top castles in North Yorkshire
Showing 1–8 of 8
Parks and PlaygroundsFountains Abbey and Studley Royal
SightseeingScarborough Castle
CastlesCastle Howard
SightseeingRichmond Castle
CastlesKnaresborough Castle
CastlesSkipton Castle
SightseeingBolton Castle
SightseeingRipley Castle
Six of the eight carry an indoor flag, but on a ruin indoors is not the same as dry, and a wet day at a hilltop castle is a short visit however good the walls are. Leave the pushchair in the car for anything with a keep in it and use a carrier instead. Beyond that, the single thing that transforms a castle visit with children is a story to hang it on: arrive with something to look for and they will look.
Castles in North Yorkshire: FAQs
Pushchair or carrier?
Carrier, for anything with towers, spiral stairs or a mound to climb. Ruined castles tend to sit on high ground reached by steps and uneven going, and a buggy becomes something you leave at the bottom and worry about. The house-and-grounds entries such as Castle Howard are the exception, where wide paths and flat rooms make wheels perfectly workable.
How much of the day does a castle take?
A ruin is an hour or two of climbing and shouting, and then it is finished. A furnished castle takes longer because there are rooms to work through in order. A great house is longer again once the grounds are counted. Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal is the one here that genuinely absorbs most of a day, because it is really a landscape with a building in it.
Which suits a child who finds history boring?
A ruin, every time. Nobody minds if a seven-year-old runs at a wall, and a castle you can climb over sells itself without a single information panel being read. Furnished houses ask for care and quiet, which is a lot to expect of a child who was brought under protest. If the grand house is unavoidable, do the grounds first and the rooms second, while patience holds.
What do we take to a ruin?
Warm layers, because exposed stone and open ground are colder than the car park led you to believe. Shoes with grip, since old steps are worn and often wet. Something to eat, as you cannot assume anything is open on site. And a torch if there are dark stairs, which turns a slightly frightening spiral into the best part of the visit.