Conisbrough Castle
Information
The town of Doncaster is not a place that immediately calls to mind grand French castles and great works of literature. But south-west of Doncaster you will find Conisbrough Castle, one of the finest and Frenchest castles in the land, and the inspiration for the home of Athelstane in Sir Walter Scott’s great novel, Ivanhoe.
In these days when a French invasion means a bunch of English people buying holiday homes in Provence, it is hard to imagine our Sceptred Isle being conquered by our friends from across the channel. And yet in 1066 King Harold turned his back for a moment and we were overrun by marauding Normans.
One such Norman monsieur was William de Warenne, who was gifted the land around Consibrough by William the Conqueror, probably in recognition of some fine Englishman slaughter. On the land William built a wooden palisade, which was replaced by a magnifique stone keep in 1180, when Hamelin Plantagenet married Isabel de Warenne.
The tower is 90ft high, and supported by six stone buttresses surrounded by a thick curtain wall. It features wash-basins and a latrine, fine examples of the sophistication of Norman plumbing. You may say what you will about our gallic cousins, but they certainly build a good medieval latrine.
Location
Conisbrough Castle can be found easily with the Google Map below.