LONDON LETTERS: skipton castle

first off, it's worth noting that i had severely underestimated the whole driving thing. i figured, "yah yah, other side of the road, no big deal." and then our car was a stick shift, and i thought, "well that's a little tricky... shifting with the left hand, but still, we can handle." and by "we" of course i meant Casey, because there was no way i was gonna drive on day one. and then it was rainy, and foggy, and the roads weren't exactly wide enough for two cars, and then.... the round-a-bouts. they have their own set of rules, those round-a-bouts.

that roundabout right there... the one above... that's a pretty straight forward roundabout. it's the ones where the Garmin is saying, "Enter Roundabout and take 5th exit" that were freaking us out a little. okay okay, on day one, all of the roundabouts freaked us out. so like i was saying in the last post, once we got out of Manchester, we headed to Skipton.

literally, dozen upon dozens of little roundabouts in there. 

pardon my incessant laughing... it was intense.

a little over an hour-and-a-half later we arrived...

(des or mais is medieval french, meaning "henceforth")

there is a large section of the castle that is not open to visitors... because someone lives there. isn't that amazing! they live in a castle... a castle! this whole section pictured below... private residence.

all over the castle were these crosses (see below-right...) they were for the archers defending the castle during times of war or attack. those slits are only about 2 inches wide. youʻd think they would be completely protected behind that tiny cross, but we learned that longbows were incredibly accurate in the right hands, and attackers standing over 80 ft. below had over a 30% accuracy rate, so 1 in 3 arrows would make it through. 

            

the castle was built in the 1090 and has received very little renovation since the 1600s... it was originally made of wood, and after faring poorly through its first attack, it was fortified in stone. the original drawbridge and moat and dungeon and kitchen... everything... were very well preserved (the original stone version, that is). this hook here was part of the drawbridge/castle gate unit. i loved the way it had worn into the stone wall over the centuries.

now letʻs take a gander inside...

pictured below is the "oven" and bathroom. yes, i'm standing in the oven. back then, kitchen duty was a mans job, several men actually. there were two of these huge fire places in the kitchen, as well as several smaller loaf cooking ovens. apparently the men who worked close to the fires, like the carvers, usually worked half-naked due to the heat. (the middle pic is looking up the oven shaft.)

the pic on the right is the toilet. its a concrete platform with a bum-sized hole that opens up several stories over a stream. in theory, you did your business and it fell right on down to the stream. (you can kinda sorta see the stream below, through the trees.)

this is the banquet hall... so imagine a couple of super long tables and dozens and dozens of people. this picture doesnʻt really do it justice but this room was enormous! there is a human sized fireplace along the left wall, and there were a couple of cannons in the rooms too. just for decoration iʻm pretty sure... unless they used them for some epic food fights.

these are the north-facing windows of the drawing room. it was the "ladies room" where the women and children would retire after dinner to do needlework and stuff... i donʻt really know what they did. if it were me, i would have made a pot of hot cocoa and watched Pride and Prejudice.

this is a view from one of the watchtower windows, overlooking the castle entrance as well as the town of Skipton.

and next... the dungeon.

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what i thought was most interesting about the dungeon was its absolute seclusion. no windows. no nearby chambers or anything... it was by nothing. and completely shut-off. i wondered how people lived for very long in those conditions, and wondered what type of people had been incarcerated there, and for what crimes. there were etchings on the dungeon walls, a coat of arms/shield, some shapes... in a nutshell, it was dark and it smelled funny. so we went outside...

the courtyard: in the middle of the castle there is a courtyard, surrounded by the domestic buildings of the castle. 

these rain gutters were part of the 1650s renovation, which was under the direction of Lady Anne Clifford... they are made of lead, as was the winery equipment and water storage containers. the castle had only one well or spring within its perimeter, which was piped in, but if they were under siege and the pipeline was cut off, the gutters were used as part of a rain-water catchment system that funneled the water into a cistern under the conduit court.

and hereʻs the court...

 this ewe tree was planted by Lady Anne in 1659 to celebrate the completion of the restoration work.

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this coat of arms is located above one of the many doors accessible via the courtyard... itʻs actually the arms of Margaret Bromflete, who was the mother of Henry Clifford, he being Anne Cliffordʻs grandfather. got that??

the archway pictured bottom right (above) is the entrance to the courtyard if you are coming by way of Lady Annaʻs main entrance to the castle.

the chapel.

built in the 12th century, last record of use 1637 for a baptism, and then fell into derepair during the civil war... became a barn for the animals. it was carefully cleaned and uncovered in the late 1950s and renovation work is slowly underway...

the view from the castle looking over Skipton...

and that concludes our castle tour...

just outside of Skipton Castle is the Holy Trinity Church of Skipton

with a kind old gardener who chatted to us for nearly a 1/2 hr. while our teeth chattered in the cold.

what i loved most about Skipton Castle was its history. i loved being around something so old, that had been a part of so many peoples lives... it had such an amazing feeling, to walk the stairs and imagine the centuries of footfalls that had worn away the stone. and the fact that itʻs still being used, being lived in, is so remarkable! history... so much history.

with the drive time, we spent our entire friday with skipton, and saturday was the concert... Mumford and Sons here we come!!