skipton/bolton

Skipton Castle & Bolton Priory,
Yorkshire Dales
Saturday 24th April 2004

REPORT & PHOTO'S by PHIL.B

Aerial view of Skipton Castle
(Picture courtesy of Skipton Castle, Yorkshire)
A gloriously sunny day was just the tonic for the joint NWFF and NEFF trip to Skipton and Bolton Priory. Six bodies were present at our starting point of Skipton Castle itself.
Upon entering through the impressive gatehouse you are greeted with a wide range of buildings which form the Castle complex. Some of these are still residential and are thus 'out of bounds' to visitors. Ascending the front steps to the main entrance, part of Lady Anne Clifford's 17thC renovations (post Civil War), you turn right to find yourself in the Conduit Court from where there are many rooms to explore. Below are pictures of various rooms and such within the castle.


	The Gatehouse


	One of the two small cannon at the Gatehouse		The Clifford's Norman motto - DESORMAIS "Henceforth"


	Lady Anne Clifford's Steps		The Conduit Court


	The Arms of John Clifford, the 9th Lord of Skipton


	The Yew Tree planted by Lady Anne in 1659		Steps up to the Banqueting Hall


	One of many fireplaces		The Muniment Room


	View of Gatehouse from The Watchtower


	A Garderobe		The Dungeon


	Dungeon Graffiti


	A Bread Oven in the Old Kitchen....		....and a Charcoal Stove in the New Kitchen!


	The Curing Sink....		....and it's lead piping.


	An outside view		The 'lived-in' bit


	More cannons

Within the Castle Walls is the Chapel of St.John the Evangelist, now just a shell. It's last recorded use was for a baptism in 1657 and the font was recently restored to it's rightful place from where it had lain for 300 years in the Conduit Court.

Chapel of St.John the Evangelist

The East Window... ...and from the inside

The restored Font

After the castle (and gift shop) we had to say farewell to two of our party. The four remaining souls then headed for The Museum of Craven Life. This was found to be a wonderful little museum with everything from Prehistory to the 20thC within its walls. Activities for kids (and adults!) also gave it a bit of something extra. One display that brought a smile was a letter written to a local paper with regards to 'juvenile nuisance and foul language' on Skipton's High Street - in 1852!! The next time granny says 'not in my days'....
On the whole the Museum of Craven Life in Skipton is definitely worth a visit.

After lunch and a discussion about tomatoes in an exhorbitantly priced cafe it was back to the cars for the short drive to Bolton Abbey and the Priory. The nearly full car park and the milling hordes present was stark confirmation that it was a very warm spring day. However the ruins of the Priory were found to be only sparsely scattered with the tourists, thankfully the majority were either in the river or in it's immediate vicinity. Day-tripping to this particular pictureque spot is not a recent phenomena - on one Bank Holiday Sunday in the 1890's the trains delivered 40,000 of them!!
The 13thC Nave of Bolton Priory is still used as the parish church today.

After visiting yet another gift shop and buying refreshments we made a democratic decision to drive a touch further up the road to the enigmatic ruins of Barden Tower. Unfortunately upon arriving we found we could only go around the outside due to its poor condition, but at least we could get photo's of the inner walls. Click on the plaque photo to read it.