Bolton Castle

Yorkshire, England - Bolton Castle & Wensleydale

We drove on the usual narrow roads from Thirsk to get to really narrow & curvy roads, as we ascended into the Yorkshire Dales, heading to Wensleydale, a beautiful sheep-grazing area.

Our first destination was Bolton Castle, but we stopped partway there in Bedale, for coffee or tea; we stopped again at Redmire to get our bearings & a photo of a large Maple tree in fall color.

note - you can enlarge any part of a picture by left-clicking in and then out again.

	quiet morning in Bedale		Maple tree in tiny village of Redmire				big friendly male cat
		Inns are everywhere		Wensleydale topography

Bolton Castle & the Scrope family...

In the 1300s, Feudal custom prohibited English Barons from building their own fortifications. You could have a manor house, but not a castle, the architectural difference being crenellations, or battlement towers. Should you presume to crenellate your manor without Royal permission, your entire property could be confiscated by the King's men, or worse.

As early as the 1200s, Scrope family members came into prominence for dedicated service to successive Kings of England, and, were granted a lot of land in 'Wensley'. In 1333, Sir Henry Scope was appointed Chief Baron of the Exchequer, under Edward III.

In 1364 Sir Henry's third son Richard Scrope became a loyal & distinguished Knight, engaged in many skirmishes on the Continent, and in Palestine, as part of a Crusade. Sir Richard became an important economic advisor to the King and fourteen years later (1378) he was appointed Lord Chancellor of England.

A year later, perhaps 'feeling his oats', Sir Richard petitioned the King & was granted a License to Crenellate at Bolton Manor, and twenty years later, in 1399, Bolton Castle was occupied. The family tradition of service to the Crown continued when Sir Richard's eldest son William was knighted, and in 1398 was appointed Treasurer of England, under Richard II.

The Castle - the official guide states that Bolton Castle is "one of the best preserved examples of a medieval fortress in private ownership in England today". It also states that it is was "an extravagantly luxurious dwelling....and a bold expression of the Scrope family's status, power and royal approval."

The Castle walls were built with innovative vertical air shafts to vent smoke up & away from kitchen cooking fires, thereby preventing the age-old problem in castles all over Europe, whereby royals and servants (or other residents) in upstairs apartments were constantly subject to kitchen smoke.

In 1568, Mary Stuart, Queen of Scotland, a powerful relative of Queen Elizabeth I, with a legitimate claim to the English throne, had to flee to England for her own safety, due to treacherous & conniving Scottish Lords back home.

As soon as Mary entered England, she became an existential threat to Queen Elizabeth I, who was determined to prevent MQoS from leading a Catholic uprising. Elizabeth I initially placed Mary under house arrest at Bolton Castle for 6 months, the first of Mary's 18 years of confinement.

Mary had it good here, treated as royalty. She & her entourage took over the Castle. Lord Scrope's wife, a fellow Catholic, was very accommodating and they came to enjoy each other's daily company.

Lady Scrope was the day-to-day ruler of this small kingdom, for Lord Scrope was assigned to a defensive military unit, at Carlisle Castle, 150 miles away, keeping an eye on the English-Scottish Border.

Mary and her mates were allowed to wander the surrounding Dales, riding horses & hunting. She somehow managed to get caught conspiring with local Catholics, or Papists, and this got her & the locals into trouble. She was ordered by Elizabeth I to move to a less luxurious place, and, her conditions of captivity gradually worsened over her remaining years.

All info on this page comes from the official Bolton Castle brochure, or, from the popular recent book Queen of Scots, 2004, by John Guy.

Bolton Castle		suddenly it's raining...
	kitchen and granary		vineyard & maze	in the chapel

	multi-storied buildings
		Mary Queen of Scots' bedroom
	the Lords Scrope >
		great view from the top			favoring right-handed defenders
	see note

note - how many footfalls over how many centuries does it take before stone steps begin to look worn?

Bolton Castle is a fine structure, five floors high & fun to explore, in a great setting, and we had the place to ourselves.

Afterwards, our drive up into Wensleydale continued & we almost made it to Hawes, near the upper part of the valley, where the Yorkshire Dales National Park Visitor Center is, and where globally appreciated Wensleydale cheeses are made.

Instead, we drove up roads opposite Hawes, near the tiny village of Burtersett, in search of an old Roman road, shown on the OS map as Cam High Road, which had a steady uphill grade in enjoyable Dales scenery.

grazing near Bainbridge				lunch stop at Bainbridge tea room		a relaxed Dales town
			stone barns near Bainbridge		walking on a Roman road
view of Hawes				evening light on Wether Fell		a man and his dog
	a resident of Burtersett, see note		public footpath crosses the road		our hiking mate's trail home
upper Wensleydale		walls erected long ago		at the turnaround point

note - We first came across this interesting person and his dog down below near the tiny village of Burtersett, when we asked directions to the old Roman road. He pointed out where to park, about 1,000 ft. away. We parked and headed uphill.

Later we saw he & his dog slowly catching up with us and then further up the hill - for we were all walking for exercise - we stopped & chatted. He had a pleasant and musical African-British accent, and said he has lived in many places. Now he is a mgmt. consultant to local public education agencies, while his wife's a teacher in the valley below. They live in an amazingly scenic place, and he said he walks with his dog up here almost every afternoon.

When we asked him how hard the winters are, he said they are bearable even though snow sometimes prevents people getting to work. He added that the topography is prone to occasional flooding, yes, no kidding...

Storm Desmond, December 2015 - Only weeks after our visit, parts of northern England including the Borders, and Cumbria (where the Lake District is), plus Lancashire, and Yorkshire, and also Counties at similar latitudes in Ireland, like Cork and Clare, were bombarded with rain from an extratropical cyclone or 'atmospheric river' which brought a maximum of 13 inches of rain in one day. The two day total for the area at large was 16 inches.

The Ure river in lower Wensleydale spread out pretty wide and caused general flooding, while River Ouse in the City of York went over its banks & flooded low lying areas of the old city for days. Below are a few images from the web.

River Ure at Hawes, early Dec. '15

general flooding in Wensleydale

the City of York

go to next page - week two, part four - Castle Howard

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