Skipton Castle
"Skipton Castle stands on high ground at the end of the town, having on
its north front a ravine which it overhangs. If Robert de Romille ever built a
keep here, there is no part of it remaining, and the only Norman work is
perhaps the western door of the inner ward. Robert de Clifford, the grantee,
must have built the chief part of the castle on the W., the curtain walls, 9 feet
thick, and the seven round towers at the angles of the square enceinte and
between them. All this, we are told, had been in a ruinous state from the
time of the Albemarles. The range of buildings on the E. having a length
of 60 yards, and terminated by an octagon tower, was the work of the first
Earl of Cumberland for the reception of his daughter-in-law in 1535, and
this part not being destroyed after the Civil War, was the residence of
Countess Anne, the great restorer of castles."
Extract from "The Castles of England: Their Story and Structure" (Archive)
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