Barnard Castle

Impressive Barnard Castle perches dramatically on a high rock above the River Tees. The castle was constructed on the site of an earlier defended position from around 1095 to 1125 by Guy de Balliol and enlarged between 1125 and 1185 by Guy's nephew and heir, Bernard de Balliol, his son, also Bernard, further extended the building.

Around 1300 the castle was granted to the Beauchamp family, Earls of Warwick. In the fifteenth century the castle passed to the Neville family by the marriage of Anne Beauchamp to Richarrd Neville, Earl of Warwick, known to history as 'Warwick the Kingmaker'. In 1477 during the Wars of the Roses, Richard, Duke of Gloucester (later to become King Richard III), who was married to Warwick's younger daughter Anne, took possession of the castle, it was to become one of his favourite residences.

The castle is now in the care of English Heritage and is open to the public