Richmond Castle, Easby Abbey

The ruins of Richmond Castle and Easby Abbey have long been admired for their imposing and picturesque beauty. Set within sight of one another, a mile apart down the River Swale, the histories of both have been intimately intertwined. Richmond Castle was probably established in the 1070s by Alan Rufus to defend his northern estate from the Anglo-Saxon nobility dispossessed after the Norman Conquest. The castle subsequently developed as the centre of the Honour of Richmond, a vast estate spreading over eight counties. Easby Abbey was founded by Roald, a constable of the castle, in 1152 to support a community of Premonstratensian canons. The grandeur of the surviving abbey buildings testifies to the success and wealth of this foundation throughout the Middle Ages.