Kelly

Scarborough Castle - Our recent visit

We recently visited Scarborough Castle for the first time in years. Read on to find out more.

Standing on a massive promontory of rock that sits above the North Sea. A former royal castle with a 12th centaury tower. Scarborough was once one of the greatest royal fortresses in England. Twice besieged and has defended king and country from the Jacobite's, Napoleon and German Kaiser during WW1. In the 4th Centaury the Romans built a fortified signal station. The castle was first established by William le Gros, Earl of York in the 12th Century

The castle is steeped in over 3,000 years of history, I highly recommend purchasing the guide book for a later read.

Our Visit

We parked in the St Marys Parking spaces on our visit and walked up the steep hill to the gates. We spotted the numbers on the path which we thought were interesting and then headed into the shop which is your way in and out. The Tower was closed on our visit due to extreme winds and unfortunately we did cut our visit short due to the storm that we got caught in. We did see most things but it would have been nice to just take our time and even sit looking out to sea for a bit, however we still enjoyed our visit and did have a look at most parts. We are planning on heading back on a day when the weather is a bit nicer.

There's lots to see including:

Barbican & Gate

Master gunners house which has an indoor seating area downstairs and two exhibit spaces upstairs full of interesting archaeological finds.

Inner bailey

Great Tower

Viewing platform - This was open despite the weather

King Johns chamber block

Sally port

South steel battery

Kings hall

Roman signal station

Medieval chapel

The site itself is ruins but it does sit on quite a big patch of land for you to wander and enjoy. Don't miss the well either which goes a very very long way down!

Good to know

Shop

Café (small van) with indoor/outdoor seating available

Toilets

Dogs are welcome on leads

It does say disabled parking on the website but I honestly could not see where this would even be.

Audio tour available

Plenty of picnic space for nicer weather

Mostly accessible but please do bare in mind you have to walk over grass, there's steps up the Great tower, the viewing platform and top floor of the Master gunners house

Open daily from 10-5, free for English heritage members

For ticket options for non members please see HERE