Bolingbroke Castle

Bolingbroke Castle stands in the village of Old Bolingbroke in Lincolnshire. It is a ruined castle built mainly of Spilsby greenstone, a local limestone that proved too porous for long life. The castle was planned as an irregular polygon without a central keep, relying instead on thick walls and five D-shaped towers. A wide water-filled moat once surrounded the curtain wall up to five metres thick. The twin-towered gatehouse and corner towers were designed for defence rather than residence. Similar castles without keeps were built by Ranulf in Cheshire and at Boulogne-sur-Mer in France. The castle was founded in 1220 by Ranulf, Earl of Chester, after his return from the Fifth Crusade. Ranulf died without a male heir in 1232, and the castle passed to his sisters. It later became the birthplace of Blanche of Lancaster in 1342 and her son Henry in 1367, who would become Henry IV. By the 15th century the castle had fallen into disrepair, though Tudor officials named towers after their roles. During the First English Civil War the castle was besieged, damaged, and deliberately slighted in 1652 to prevent reuse. Today the castle is a national monument with much of the lower walls and tower bases still visible. Excavations in the 1960s and 1970s uncovered the ground floors of the towers. The site is maintained by Heritage Lincolnshire and hosts summer events including Shakespeare performances. The remaining ruins show the unusual design without a keep and the scale of the original defences. Visitors can walk the perimeter and see the moat’s edge where the towers once stood. The castle’s history is visible in the surviving stonework and the names attached to parts of the ruins.