Bolton Castle

Built in 1379 for Richard le Scrope, Lord Chancellor of England to Richard II, this massive fortress dominating the heart of Wensleydale is one of the country's best preserved castles. Oak beams raised more than six centuries ago still support many of the great halls and galleries, walls nine feet thick soar upwards to battlements from which Royalist guards eyed their Parliamentary besiegers during the Civil War.

The medieval atmosphere of the Castle lingers everywhere, - in the rooms in which Mary, Queen of Scots, spent six melancholy months of imprisonment during 1568 and 1569, and in the 14th century Garde-robes (lavatories) constructed with such sophistication that they were still in use some 500 years later. It persists most powerfully in the macabre horror of the Castle dungeon, a hole carved from solid rock, in which an arm bone was found still manacled to the wall.

Throughout the great Castle, vivid tableaux help to bring the distant past to life - the Castle chaplain meditating in his austere cell, the miller at work on the threshing floor, the blacksmith in his forge, the Nursery furnished with 17th century artefacts, and Mary, Queen of Scots' bedroom complete with her ladies-in-waiting and her favourite dog.

For the comfort of his guests, Richard le Scrope built grandiose living quarters. The vast 14th century Guest Hall is now an inviting tea-room offering modern visitors an excellent selection of teas and light snacks in the most impressive surroundings.

In recent years the present owner, Lord Bolton, a direct descendant of the 1st Lord Scrope, has restored two of the Castle gardens along medieval lines - a Herb Garden with more than 40 different species, both culinary and medicinal, and a walled garden stocked with hardy varieties of grape vines. Nearby a formal garden blazes with old-fashioned roses and the Bowling Green is fringed with colourful flowers and shrubs.