England · Ruin
Bowes Castle
Bowes Castle is a medieval stone hall-keep erected within the perimeter of the Roman fort of Lavatrae in County Durham, England. Built in stone under Henry II in the 12th century, the three-storey keep survives today as a prominent ruin managed by English Heritage.
Its prime
1174
Today
Ruin
As it stood in 1174
What Bowes Castle looked like in its prime.
A rectangular three-storey stone hall-keep approximately 25 by 18 metres and c.15 metres high, standing on the raised interior of an older Roman fort. Thick stone walls are pierced by large rounded (Romanesque) window openings; one end of the keep has collapsed into an irregular mass of rubble producing a broken silhouette. The keep sits within a shallow inner ditch and is surrounded by broad earthen ramparts of the former fort, on open grassy ground with scattered mature trees and the village approach uphill.
Its story
The story of Bowes Castle.
Bowes Castle was built within the perimeter of the Roman fort of Lavatrae, on the Roman road that is now the A66. Around 1136 Alan de Bretagne, Count of Brittany, raised a timber castle in the north-west corner of the old fort; between 1170 and 1174 Henry II replaced it with a substantial stone structure, spending almost £600 by 1187, the work supervised by the Count of Brittany's local tenants Torfin, Osbert and Stephen of Barningham. A planned village was built alongside, and a mill on the River Greta supplied flour for the garrison.
The castle withstood Scottish attack during the Great Revolt of 1173–74. It lay within the Honour of Richmond, traditionally held by the Counts of Brittany, though the land itself was Crown demesne: Henry III granted it briefly to William de Blockley and Gilbert de Kirketon, then to Duke Peter of Brittany in 1232 and to William de Valence, before Peter II, Count of Savoy, made Earl of Richmond in 1241, was given Bowes by the king.
The castle remained in the hands of the Earls of Richmond until 1322, by when it was in a poor state of repair, rebels successfully looted it that year, and when Edward II gave it to John de Scargill the Earl of Richmond's local tenants rebelled and attacked it. Largely dismantled after the English Civil War, the three-storey keep survives as a prominent ruin owned by English Heritage, with free admission during daylight hours.
Step inside
8 places to explore in 1174.
The record describes 8 distinct spots at Bowes Castle, including 2 interiors: great hall inside the hall-keep, solar (upper private chamber). Create your own photoreal reconstruction and explore every one, more scenes means more rooms, more angles, and more of the place to stand in.
Build Your Own Castle
Recreate Bowes Castle with AI to explore it.
The artist rebuilds it as it stood in 1174, a photoreal reconstruction that belongs to you alone. Pay with coins, no subscription needed.
Recreate this castle →Defend this castle →From the archive
Bowes Castle on paper: the measured plan and period views.
The survey plan and photographs below are the ground truth this page's reconstructions are checked against, drawn and photographed while the castle was still a working garrison. Every image is public-domain or openly licensed, with its source named.
BOWES CASTLE. FIRST OR MAIN FLOOR.
1884 · G. T. Clark, Mediaeval Military Architecture, vol. 1 (1884)
Public domain
SCALE. GROUND PLAN.
1884 · G. T. Clark, Mediaeval Military Architecture, vol. 1 (1884)
Public domain
