What is recorded here

Richmond Castle rose from a strong hill above the River Swale in 1071 when Alan Rufus built a Norman fortress to punish and control the northern lands. Henry II later completed the towering honey-coloured keep with walls thick enough to shake a modern climber, turning a local defence into a statement of royal power. The stones still stand after King John once ordered them destroyed during the First Barons' War, preserving a rare early castle where human ambition, fear and pride remain locked inside its angular rooms.

Richmond Castle is shown as a castle on the public map of North Yorkshire. The saved point is the map point or the centre of its mapped shape.

Richmond Castle was built by the Normans in the late 11th century, with the current keep constructed under the orders of William the Conqueror's son, Henry I, around 1120. It is important as a well-preserved example of Norman military architecture and as a key stronghold in the defense of northern England against Scottish invasions.

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