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Knaresborough b&b, guesthouse and hotel accommodation

Visit Knaresborough and the surrounding villages and stay in bed & breakfast accommodation:

Knaresborough, West Riding. The most picturesque town of the Riding covers a bluff on the Nidd with a pleasant jumble of buildings that lie in irregular tiers above the riverside. The town has England's oldest linen mill and once employed weavers in cottages for miles around. Today it is chiefly a market town. The ruins of the castle stand on a strategic height and from them you can get a heady view of the town and the river gorge. A Norman castle was built here by Baron Serb de Burg but the existing remains date from 1310 to 1340. They include some curtain wall with towers, the rectangular keep of three floors and a basement, and a 14^th-century gatehouse. Near the entrance is the old Court of Knaresborough with a l4^th-century lower story and 17^th-century upper. The ground floor of the castle keep is a museum, among its items being armour worn at Marston Moor. History did not pass Knaresborough by. The murderers of Thomas a Becket hid out for three years and Richard II was imprisoned here on his way to death at Pontefract. The castle was sacked by the Scots and thoroughly “slighted” by Parliament after the Civil War.

Halfway up the hillside between Waterside and High Street is St John's Parish Church whose central tower is crowned with a little spirelet. The church is mainly of 13^th- and l4^th-century date with some rebuilding in the 15^th. Furnishings include a poor-box of about 1600 shaped like a clock. There are three noteworthy 17^th-century monuments to Slingsbys, including a standing figure of Sir William Slingsby in an arched niche. He died in 1634 and is partly remembered for discovering the mineral springs at Harrogate.

St Robert's Chapel in Abbey Road is named after Robert Flower (1160-1218), its fanatical founder. It is tiny but ornamented with primitive colonettes, a vaulted roof and carved faces. At the entrance stands the l6^th-century larger-than-life figure of the hermit saint, drawing his sword. Dropping Well is a petrifying spring whose limestone content solidifies objects which fall into it. It is near Low Bridge and not far off in a cave once lived Mother Shipton, a prophetess of the 1500s who forecast motorcars, aircraft and other strange things.

Knaresborough boasts the oldest chemist's shop in England, in the Market Place. The Old Manor House is a medieval building with chequerboard walls, built originally around an oak tree. It was a royal fishing lodge given by James I to his son, and Cromwell slept here. Among other buildings of special interest are Knaresborough House, a Georgian mansion now used for council offices; Conyngham Hall, another l8^th-century house whose grounds are a public park and zoo; and Fort Montague built into the cliff above the cave chapel. Knaresborough is a good starting point for Dales tours. Boats and punts can be hired on the river, which is spanned by High and Low bridges on either side of the towering railway viaduct.

Schoolchildren know all about Blind Jack Metcalf of Knaresborough, born in 1717, who in 93 years of vigorous living was a violinist, soldier, forest guide, and major roadbuilder.

Nearby cities: Leeds, York

Nearby towns: Easingwold, Harrogate, Wetherby, Ripon, Tadcaster

Nearby villages: Allerton Mauleverer, Birstwith, Bishop Monkton, Boroughbridge, Boston Spa, Burton Leonard, Cattal, Copgrove, Cowthorpe, Ferrensby, Goldsborough, Great Ouseburn, Green Hammerton, Hampsthwaite, Huby, Ingerthorpe, Killinghall, Kirkby Overblow, Leathley, Little Ouseburn, Little Ribston, Myton-on-Swale, Nidd, Pannal, Ripley, Roecliffe, Sicklinghall, Spofforth, Stainburn, Stainley, Starbeck, Thorp Arch, Wetherby, Whixley

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• other Knaresborough accommodation

Accommodation in Knaresborough:

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