Richmond Castle sits high above the River Swale with the town spread beneath it - a position chosen so it couldn’t be ignored. It was started around 1071 by Alan Rufus, one of William the Conqueror’s leading men in the North, as a hard statement of Norman control. In the 12th century the castle was expanded and the great square keep was built, still dominating the skyline and the approaches into town. And it isn’t just medieval history. In 1916, a military cell block inside the castle held consc

A quick fly-around Richmond Castle — one of the earliest Norman fortresses in England and still one of the strongest silhouettes in the whole of North Yorkshire. Nearly a thousand years on, it still dominates the town and the bend of the Swale. Built by Alan Rufus in the late 11th century, the castle has been everything from a statement of power to a garrison to a prison, and the keep remains one of the best-preserved in the country. From above, you really see how deliberately it commands the ri