The first stone building there though was the present castle- it was built in various stages during a multitude of Royal possessions. For example, Henry II built the Great Tower (Keep), and an inner Bailey. The curtain walls was most likely begun by King John, and then completed with the Barbican added, under Henry III and Edward I .
The Curtain wall is a must see- it is incredible, in that it traverses the entire stretch of the headland- and, at times, it appears to be built right into the hillside. Inside the Curtain wall is the Inner Bailey. It was built during the 1150's and housed the 3-story Keep, the Former Hall, and several service buildings. There is evidence of the existence of another hall, somewhere along the curtain wall, where some joist holes are visible. Just outside the keep there is also a medieval well which would have supplied the castle inhabitants with all their water needs, especially during beseiges- The castle was infact unsuccessfully besieged several times. In 1312, the castle was attacked, but it was only the threat of starvation that forced out the Earl who was taking refuse there at the time. It wasn't until an assault by Parlimentary Troops in 1645, that the castle was actually taken. It was during this assault that the West side of the Keep was brought down. When we view castle ruins today, we tend to imagine that the damage that we see is most likely a result of battle during the Castle's heydays, and then more naturally, by time and weather... Some the damage visible at Scarborough Castle was made during more recent times... 2 German bombers bombarded the castle in 1914, during WWI, destroying the Barracks.
Scarborough Castle is located in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, and is open daily throught out the holiday season. If anybody who reads this actually has been, or gets to go sometime in the future, I'd love to see your pictures of it!
Come back and visit soon- I am working on adding a few more pictures!
The castle ruins stand atop a 300ft triangular
headland looking out over the North Sea, in Scarborough, England. The name scarborough is derived from a Viking Settlement which was called "Scarthe's Burgh" . The present castle was built in the middle of the 14th century, but the castle site itself was in use much earlier than that. Over 2000 yrs ago, during Roman Times, a signal station was built there- remains of which apparently are still visible today.