Curtain wall and towers

The main enclosure of the castle is mostly surrounded by an 11th-century curtain wall, a uniquely well-preserved example of such early fortification. All the main medieval domestic buildings stood against this wall.

Along the east curtain wall were three square-planned towers. The northernmost of these, known as the Robin Hood Tower, was probably begun in the late 11th century. The chapel on the ground floor of this tower may have been dedicated to St Nicholas. Traces of red paint, part of a medieval decorative scheme, are visible on the altar arch.

The middle of the three towers has collapsed, but the southernmost, known as the Gold Hole Tower, still stands to its original height.

Scolland’s Hall

Adjoining the great chamber, standing against the south curtain wall, is the 11th-century block known as Scolland’s Hall. This is one of the most important surviving examples of early medieval domestic architecture in England. It has been called Scolland’s Hall since at least 1400, after a long-serving steward of the castle.^[2]

The hall block was probably built in the 1080s. It is a two-storey structure with its main apartments on the first floor above an undercroft, typical of early Norman and Anglo-Norman domestic architecture. The undercroft, lit with rectangular windows on the south side, was probably used for storage.

The great hall on the upper floor was the main domestic interior of the castle, occupying almost the entire length of the block. Large windows lined both sides. At the east end, separated from the hall by a stone wall, was a small withdrawing chamber, or solar. Count Alan (see History of Richmond Castle) or his deputy could have retired from the hall to this room to relax or sleep. There is also evidence for a balcony outside the east wall, overlooking the castle garden (later known as the Cockpit).

In the 12th century a new range was built to the west, abutting the hall. Three doors were punched through the west wall, giving access to a kitchen, buttery and pantry. A wooden screen may have concealed them from the rest of the hall. In about 1300 the building was further altered, perhaps as the result of a fire.^[3] The north window at the east end was turned into a door, giving access to the newly built chapel and chamber range to the north.

Keep interior

Access to the interior was through the door at first-floor level. A modern stair now leads to this, but a survey of 1538 records an earlier building housing an entrance stair. This was apparently not fortified or built of stone – even early views of the castle show no sign of its remains.

The present entrance opens to a small lobby with two further doorways. The doorway to the right leads into the first-floor room, a high chamber with a central pillar. From the left door a straight stair rises to the second floor. At the top is a second lobby, probably a waiting room for the main second-floor chamber.

This magnificently proportioned room is open to the roof. It probably served as a great hall, with a dais set beneath the pair of windows at the far end of the room. 

The ground floor of the keep was vaulted in the late 13th century. A spiral stair was also inserted, connecting the ground and first floors.

The cockpit

To the east of the castle enclosure, outside the curtain wall, is the area known as the Cockpit. The name probably followed its use for cockfighting, a popular sport from the 16th to the 18th centuries.

The Cockpit may have been a garden from the foundation of the castle in the 11th century. A royal survey made in about 1280 records a garden ‘pertaining to the castle’, and an illustration dating to about 1400 shows the Cockpit area filled with fruit trees.^[4]The wooden balcony projecting from the east end of Scolland’s Hall may have been designed to overlook the garden.

Excavation of the Cockpit has revealed evidence of 19th-century gardens, including the remains of ornamental flowerbeds, paths and a glasshouse. In 2002 English Heritage opened the present garden, commissioned from the designer Neil Swanson. It includes one work of topiary for each of the Richmond Sixteen, the conscientious objectors held here in 1916.