Malton Castle

Malton Castle stands on the edge of the town of Malton in North Yorkshire. It began as a wooden motte-and-bailey built in the 11th century by William Tyson on the foundations of the Roman fort Derventio Brigantum. Eustace Fitz John later rebuilt it in stone and gave it to King David I of Scotland in 1138. Richard I of England visited in 1189 and Edward II in 1307. During the First Barons’ War it was held against King John before being captured and destroyed in 1322 by Robert I of Scotland. The castle’s gatehouse survives as part of a hotel, while short stretches of the medieval curtain wall remain. A 16th-century house built by Ralph, Lord Eure was pulled down in 1674 after a dispute between his two daughters, Margaret and Mary, led the sheriff to split the stones into equal piles. Today the site is protected as a scheduled monument. Visitors walk past the gatehouse entrance and trace the low lines of the old walls across the grassy mound. The hotel uses the gatehouse for bedrooms and a bar, so the medieval stonework forms part of daily life. From the site there are views across the Vale of Pickering towards the Howardian Hills.