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.