Best Castles in Yorkshire: 10 Historic Strongholds Worth the Trip

Yorkshire doesn’t do castles by halves. England’s largest county was fought over for a thousand years — by Normans, Scots, rival Plantagenets, and Civil War armies — and the evidence is scattered gloriously across its dales, moors, and coastline. From clifftop ruins battered by the North Sea to intact medieval fortresses you can still climb to the battlements of, the best castles in Yorkshire offer some of the finest heritage days out anywhere in Britain.

And here’s the good news for campers: almost every castle on this list has a decent campsite within a twenty-minute drive. Yorkshire is one of the best counties in the UK for pitching up near history, which is exactly why we’ve paired every castle below with a note on where to camp nearby.

Here are our ten favourites, roughly north to south.

1. Richmond Castle, North Yorkshire

Richmond is one of the oldest stone castles in England, begun within a few years of the Norman Conquest, and its great keep still towers over the market town and the River Swale below. Climb to the top and you get one of the best views in the north — the cobbled marketplace on one side, the mouth of Swaledale on the other.

Don’t miss Scolland’s Hall, one of the earliest surviving great halls in the country, and the cell block where conscientious objectors were imprisoned during the First World War — their pencilled graffiti still marks the walls.

Camping nearby: Swaledale is prime camping country. Sites around Richmond and Reeth put you within easy reach of the castle and the wider Yorkshire Dales.

2. Bolton Castle, Wensleydale

Not to be confused with the town of Bolton in Lancashire, Bolton Castle sits in the heart of Wensleydale and is one of the best-preserved medieval castles in the country. Completed in 1399, it famously held Mary, Queen of Scots as a prisoner for six months in 1568 — you can still visit the chamber where she was kept.

It’s privately owned by the descendants of the family who built it, and it shows in the atmosphere: falconry displays, archery, wild boar, and a genuinely medieval feel that English Heritage sites sometimes can’t match. One of the best castles in Yorkshire for families, hands down.

Camping nearby: Wensleydale has a cluster of excellent small campsites around Leyburn and Aysgarth, most within fifteen minutes of the castle gates.

3. Middleham Castle, Wensleydale

Just down the dale from Bolton sits Middleham, the childhood home of Richard III. He trained here as a boy under the Earl of Warwick — the “Kingmaker” — and later made it his northern power base. The massive twelfth-century keep is one of the largest ever built in England, and you can walk its walls with Wensleydale spread out below.

Middleham today is racehorse country, so time your visit for a morning and you’ll see strings of thoroughbreds exercising on the gallops beneath the castle. Combine it with Bolton Castle for a perfect one-day Wensleydale castle crawl.

Camping nearby: The same Leyburn-area sites serve both castles — pitch once, visit twice.

4. Scarborough Castle, North Yorkshire Coast

Scarborough Castle occupies one of the most dramatic castle sites in England: a massive headland jutting into the North Sea, with the town’s two bays curving away on either side. People have defended this rock for nearly 3,000 years — there’s an Iron Age settlement, a Roman signal station, and the shattered remains of a great twelfth-century keep, damaged during a Civil War siege and shelled again by German battlecruisers in 1914.

It’s the perfect castle to pair with a classic seaside day: fish and chips on the front, a walk around the Marine Drive, and history on the headland.

Camping nearby: The Scarborough and Filey coast is packed with campsites and holiday parks, from big family sites to quieter cliff-top options.

5. Helmsley Castle, North York Moors

On the southern edge of the North York Moors, Helmsley Castle is a wonderful ruin beside one of Yorkshire’s prettiest market towns. Its distinctive half-keep — sliced vertically during Civil War slighting — is one of the most photographed castle silhouettes in the county.

Helmsley works brilliantly as part of a bigger day out: the castle, the walled garden next door, and a walk across the fields to Rievaulx Abbey, one of the most beautiful monastic ruins in Europe.

Camping nearby: Helmsley and the surrounding moors villages have several well-regarded sites, and you’re perfectly placed for exploring the whole national park.

6. Pickering Castle, North York Moors

A textbook Norman motte-and-bailey in the market town of Pickering, this castle was a royal hunting lodge for centuries — used by a long line of medieval kings chasing deer and boar in the Forest of Pickering. The shell keep on its steep motte gives lovely views over the town and moors.

Pickering is also the southern terminus of the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, so you can pair the castle with a steam train ride to Goathland or Whitby — an unbeatable family day.

Camping nearby: Pickering sits at the heart of one of Yorkshire’s densest clusters of campsites, with options in almost every direction.

7. Knaresborough Castle, North Yorkshire

Perched on a cliff above the River Nidd, Knaresborough Castle’s ruins preside over what might be Yorkshire’s most photogenic view: the railway viaduct striding across the wooded gorge below. The castle was a royal fortress for centuries — the murderers of Thomas Becket hid here in 1170 — before Civil War forces dismantled most of it.

What’s left is free to wander, and the town itself, with its riverside cafés and rowing boats for hire, makes this a gentle, lovely half-day out. Harrogate is ten minutes away if you fancy finishing with afternoon tea.

Camping nearby: Sites around Knaresborough and Harrogate put you in easy reach, with the Dales on your doorstep for the rest of the trip.

8. Skipton Castle, Yorkshire Dales

If you only visit one castle in Yorkshire with children, make it Skipton. This is one of the most complete medieval castles in England — fully roofed, with a banqueting hall, kitchens, bedchambers, and a beautiful central conduit court where a yew tree planted in 1659 still grows.

Skipton withstood a three-year siege during the Civil War, the last royalist stronghold in the north, and unlike so many castles on this list it was never slighted into ruin afterwards. The result is a castle you experience as a building, not an outline — kids adore it.

Camping nearby: Skipton is the “Gateway to the Dales,” and campsites around Gargrave, Embsay, and the entrance to Wharfedale are all within a short drive.

9. Conisbrough Castle, South Yorkshire

South Yorkshire’s finest castle, and one of the most remarkable buildings of its age anywhere in Britain. Conisbrough’s gleaming white circular keep, built in the 1180s, is completely unique — a cylinder supported by six massive buttresses, standing almost intact after more than 800 years. Walter Scott was so taken with it that he set part of Ivanhoe here.

Recently re-floored and re-roofed inside, you can climb through its chambers to the top for views across the Don Valley. It’s far less visited than the North Yorkshire giants, which makes it a brilliant quieter option.

Camping nearby: Options are thinner in South Yorkshire, but sites around Doncaster and the edge of the Peak District work well — or combine Conisbrough with Pontefract on a southern castles day out.

10. Pontefract Castle, West Yorkshire

Once described as the key to the north, Pontefract was among the most feared castles in England — the place where Richard II died in mysterious circumstances in 1400, and a royalist stronghold through no fewer than three Civil War sieges. Parliament hated it so much they demolished it almost completely at the request of the townspeople.

What survives is fragmentary but atmospheric, sitting in a well-kept park with a good visitor centre, and entry is free. Pair it with the town’s famous liquorice heritage — Pontefract cakes are still made here.

Camping nearby: West Yorkshire is more urban, but you’re under an hour from the southern Dales sites, making Pontefract an easy stop on the way north.

An Honourable Mention: Castle Howard

Yes, we know — Castle Howard isn’t really a castle. It’s a Baroque stately home, one of the grandest in Britain, and star of both Brideshead Revisited and Bridgerton. But it’s magnificent, it’s in Yorkshire, and it even has camping on the estate itself, so we couldn’t leave it out entirely. We’ve covered it properly in our separate guide to Castle Howard and what to see nearby.

Planning Your Yorkshire Castle Trip

When to go: The ruins are open year-round, but April to September gives you the best weather for combining castles with camping. October half-term is superb for atmosphere — several Yorkshire castles run Halloween events.

Money-saving tip: Richmond, Scarborough, Helmsley, Pickering, and Conisbrough are all English Heritage sites, so a membership pays for itself quickly if you’re doing a castle-hopping trip. Knaresborough and Pontefract are free.

Make it a road trip: The Wensleydale pair (Bolton and Middleham), the Moors pair (Helmsley and Pickering), and the coast (Scarborough) chain together beautifully into a week-long circuit with two or three campsite bases. For the full route, see our Complete Guide to UK Castles and our guide to Camping Near UK Castles.

Yorkshire rewards slow travel. Pitch the tent, pick a dale, and let a thousand years of history fill your days — there’s no better county in England for camping your way through the past.