Skipton Castle

A week or two ago Damian had some time off work. We still had many of the children’s regular activities to go to, but we also wanted a nice day out somewhere too. As we have been looking at the Kings and Queens of England, we decided to head to a local(ish) castle for the day.

Skipton Castle was the choice for our visit and at over 900 years old it is a brilliantly preserved castle. Skipton isn’t too far away from us and it’s a very pretty market town, so nice to have a stroll around there anyway.

We made the trip over to Skipton and parked up on the castle carpark – I think it was £4 all day. There are a number of other car parks in the town, but this one was quick and easy for accessing the castle. The castle itself is very imposing and amazingly intact. It can sometimes be a bit abstract for the children to see castle ruins and imagine the vast buildings they’ve read about so it’s a real treat to see and explore such a wonderfully intact castle.

When we arrived we paid at the ticket office and the children were each given a pin badge, which was a nice touch. We were also given a sheet which acts as a guide around the castle; if you follow it in order then you should see all the various bits and pieces.

We tried out best to follow this – as best you can with eager children! and it was really good to head around and see how the castle was built and used and how it developed over the years. The children took a lot away from the visit, and Daniel was pointing out the kitchens in a new castle book this week as he remembered the kitchen we saw at Skipton.

The tour around the castle is well done with lots to see and clear information in each space to help you to visualise what the castle would have been like. The weather was lovely when we visited so we made use of the picnic area and had a bite to eat before heading into Skipton itself. There is a small onsite coffee shop that sells small snacks and drinks (it looked to be reasonably priced) and a very well stocked gift shop with all manner of pocket money items and bigger things such as books and the such.

We extended our trip with a walk around Skipton and had a stroll along the canal and a stop for ice cream before heading back to the car and home. The next day we made use of the printables on the Skipton Castle website and the children coloured in a couple of pictures to add to their project books.