Hello all,

As we all know castles were as important to a knight/lord as his sword and armour, but not everyone can afford to go see these impressive structures. Below I have posted some Pics of a trip to Bolton Castle in Wensleydale England along with a brief history of the castle, taken from a Bolton pamphlet. I must say I found the experiance to be a very profound one. It was impressive in every way from the top of the battlements down to the lowest stable. The amout of manpower it took and time to build it astonishes me even now. I can honestly say the trip was worth every penny :)

More pics of the outside and the floorplan.

Thanks

Speaking of Medieval fortifications.... I just saw a great book at Barnes and Nobles today... The Medieval Fortress. It is an amazing book on this subject, with cutaways and inside views of the inner workings of everything, the dungeouns and all that. It is very neat and well illustrated.

You can browse through it here....

http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0306813580/re...eader-link

Thanks for posting those pics, Eric. Looks like a nice trip. I think we should post more stuff on the site about fortifications. I posted a thread a while back about a guy in France building a modern day replica of a medieval castle from scratch using original methods - as you say, the time and effort involved was amazing. There was a good BBC programme the other day about Harlech Castle and how it was the ultimate hi-tech weapon of its day, practically impregnable and built using the latest techniques - they used circular ramps around the towers when building it so they could run stones up to the towers are walls much faster than the old pulleys and ladders.

Saw some nice castles in the Highlands and Western Isles recently.

Daniel

Very impressive place, by the look of it. Is the place still in day-to-day use? I note that there are glazed windows.

Yes, it's still in use today, though mostly as a museum, but you can have a wedding reception or such there. I forgot to post the link: www.boltoncastle.co.uk

One part of the castle they did renovate and is now the castle's gift shop/entrance. When I sort through more pics I'll post some of the interior. If anyone else has pics of a great castle feel free to share....I know I'd love to see them.

Eric,
Is there any way you can englarge the last picture with the layout of the castle floors (last one in the second post)? I had trouble viewing that one. Thanks for sharing! Another place to add for a future trip :).

Lance:

Thanks for the tip just ordered the The Medieval Fortress from a local book store.

Hello all,

Steve- Yeah I should have been more descriptive...."great castles" meaning "places you went and thought were really cool" Bolton is being de-vegetated and repointed with the help of the English Heritage, but I don't know if they belong to it. Nice pics of Pickering, Reminds me of Cliffords castle in York itself.

Helen- I'll play with the pics today and see if I can enlarge it.


I SO need a scanner :eek:

Eric,
If it doesn't work out then don't worry about it, I'll just have to squint a little more than usual :)


Helen

Thanks Eric and Steve!

Hello all,

The best I could did clear up the image, but the image to large for the website, and shriking it only defeated the whole point . So I'll go with what Arron suggested starting at 12:00 and going clockwise:

Ground floor at 12:00 - wine cellar, well cellar, then on to 5:00 and the gatehouse, the gaurdroom and at 6:00 is the mealhouse, bar house/brew house, the threshing floor and the horse mill, the armours workshop,stable, stable, provendor house.

First floor at 12:00- the lobby/entrace to th castle(that was remodeled), the following were not accessible-buttery,buttery, buttery, great kitchen, down to 5:00 at the garrison mess, mess kitchen, the malting house, the guest hall, state chamber, and the great hall.

Second floor at 12:00 the misteral gallery and then at 6:00 is the auditors chamber, the chapel,Ladies solar, the great chamber, the state chamber, and the upper part of the great hall.

If Wal-mart ever decides to gimmie back the photos on cd I'll post more I've got great pics of the slate roof and the inside from the top of a battlement...hope the run-about helps Helen.

Thanks, Eric!

Helped me out... It was easy for me to follow, as I have 2 computers (therefore, 2 monitors) side by side here at work, so I could pull up the pic on one, and the description on the other.

It's cheating, I know... ;)

I'm definitely looking forward to any other pics that you might post. Castles, keeps, manors, and cathedrals are all awesome. For that matter, so are mounds, circles, and carvings. If anyone has the opportunity to check these out, they should take it. I'm dying for another opportunity to go back and see some of these, and look at them from a different perspective. When I went through England & Scotland, I was 14, and didn't have near the understanding of history or swordsmanship that I do now. (sadly, mother nature also took my pictures from me...)

Ahh more pics of Cliffords in Oct 2003:

Here are a old one, Ragnhildsholmen in English and Swedish, better pictures in that Swedish one. :)