Middleham Castle

Middleham sits above the Cover and the Ure in lower Wensleydale, and the castle sits above Middleham. The Nevilles took it in 1270 and spent the next two centuries turning it into the grandest thing in the dale, which is why people started calling it the Windsor of the North. Its real claim is Richard III. He spent much of his childhood here in the household of Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, later married Warwick's daughter Anne, and their son Edward was born at Middleham in 1473. What survives is a ruin, but a substantial one: the Norman keep is among the largest in England and still stands near enough to full height that you get a proper sense of the rooms. It is a smaller stop than most on this list and better for it, an hour of solid history rather than a day of walking.

From Tea Time Cafe at 87 Market Place, the usual route takes the A61 out to the A1(M), north to Leeming Bar, then through Bedale and Leyburn into Middleham, about 50 minutes. As of October 2026 the last stretch is shut: English Heritage reports Middleham Bridge, on the A6108 between Leyburn and Middleham, closed to all traffic until further notice after a lorry struck it. Its diversions are to leave the A1(M) at junction 50 and come in via Masham on the A6108, or to leave at junction 51, go into Bedale and take the B6268 towards Masham to join the A6108. Check its directions page before you set off. There is no car park at the castle itself, so use the free and paid parking in the town and walk up, or use the drop-off point near the gate if someone cannot manage the climb.

This is a car trip and there is no honest way round it. The Moorsbus M5 that passes through Thirsk at weekends in season runs east towards Helmsley and the Moors rather than west into the Dales, and the connections that do serve Middleham come out of Leyburn and do not link up from Thirsk. If you have no car, Ripon on the 70/X70 bus is the heritage day out that works from the Market Place.

Go into the keep first. It is the reason the castle reads as well as it does, and the interior spaces are legible in a way that most ruins are not. Climb to the viewing platform for the Wensleydale views, which are the best part of the visit on a clear day. Look for the multi-storey latrine tower, an unglamorous piece of engineering that tells you a good deal about how many people lived here, and the horse-powered mill. The Richard III interpretation and the exhibition fill in the politics, and they are worth reading before you walk round rather than after.

The keep is the thing. Height, thickness of wall, and enough surviving floor levels to follow how it worked. The view from the platform runs out over the dale. The Richard III connection lifts the whole visit for anyone who has read anything about the Wars of the Roses, and Middleham itself is a racing town with training stables in and around it. The Forbidden Corner is five minutes away on the Tupgill Park Estate.

Book online in advance for the cheapest rate and guaranteed entry. Facilities on site are thin, so use the toilets in the town before you climb up. Last entry is 4.30pm on days it closes at 5pm, and the castle shuts completely from 2 November to 16 March, which catches out people who assume English Heritage sites open all year. Wear something with grip, because ruins mean steps, spiral stairs and uneven ground. Combine it with the Forbidden Corner, five minutes away, for a full day, and leave a few minutes for the town itself, which trades on both its racing stables and its Richard III history.