The castle and gardens are now open. Please purchase tickets on arrival on your preferred day. Our last day of opening is Friday 1st November 2024. Dismiss
We are delighted to confirm that our lovely castle, country gardens and tearoom, near Leyburn, North Yorkshire, are open from Saturday 2nd March to Friday 1st November 2024. Tickets are available on the day, it is not necessary to pre-book. We look forward to welcoming visitors to enjoy our gardens, including our maze, vineyard and superb views across the glorious Wensleydale valley and our impressive medieval castle and shop which has lots of locally produced gifts and souvenirs. Our castle tearoom with quality freshly made cakes, quiches, sandwiches and other homemade food along with hot and cold beverages is open every day. The falconry displays will be taking place twice a day as well as our daily archery demonstration and Wild Boar talk and feed.
We look forward to welcoming you back!
Here at Bolton Castle we’re looking to grow our green credentials by becoming a member of Green Tourism and recognising and supporting eco-friendly achievements throughout our visitor offer. These will be primarily in our practices but will also need the support of our visitors. The initiatives include reducing energy use, saving water, efficient and eco-friendly waste disposal, ethical buying, staying local and seasonal, minimising food miles, promoting biodiversity and adopting a smart, sustainable outlook. Some of these we’re already doing, and some need improvement. Come on our journey with us to win a Green Tourism award and do your bit along the way. For more information, please visit Green Tourism or sign up to our Newsletter for further updates (see our home page).
We’re a Travellers Choice Award Winner, which means we’re ‘in the top 10% of visitor attractions WORLDWIDE! We ‘stood out by providing great service and experiences to our guests’ – all part of our everyday commitment to our visitors. Congratulations team! #TravelersChoice
I rarely write emails like this but feel compelled to in this instance. We visited the castle on 29th July, on a weekend when there were a number of volunteers demonstrating and talking about life in a Tudor household. It was absolutely brilliant. The patience of each person to talk us through different aspects of life and the amount of passion they had for the history was astonishing. The few hours we spent there was fantastic and we really want to come back.
I think it was Keith in the kitchen that mentioned they do this on four weekends a year, two for the Tudors and two for another period. Would it be possible to find out when they will be at the castle again?
Keep up the good work and please pass on our praise to the volunteers.
I visited yesterday and just wanted to say thank you for a lovely day, it was my first time visiting and it was brilliant.I especially really enjoyed the falconry display and Luke was fantastic. Do the falconry team have their own social media showing their work with the birds? I couldn't find anything but please pass on my thanks to Luke, if it wasn't such a scorching day, I would have loved to have spoken to him more about the birds.Hope you're well and thanks again.
Best castle I've EVER been toAbsolutely loved it here, we were lucky enough to come when people were in costume. Master David provided a GREAT tour, very very interesting, extremely knowledgeable, and humorous. I would recommend it to anyone
We thoroughly enjoyed our visit to Bolton Castle. The way the castle was exhibited was fantastic, it gave you a real feel for what it would’ve been like. The staff were so passionate, especially Dave who took the time to share his knowledge with our children in a very engaging way. The tea and pasties were delicious and it was lovely to be able to see the birds of prey in the gardens. We would definitely recommend visiting.
Brilliant Castle with lots to see and do - and a great café too!What a fantastic Castle! So much to see, every room was so interesting. Lots of info, but not too much to get boring. The day we visited was bright and sunny, the view from the roof top was truly 360' and we could see for miles! The star of the place was LEE! He did a brilliant chat and display of Archery and then we were truly entertained and informed about the birds of prey that he obviously is totally passionate about, flying display and close-up contact with beautiful birds. It was superb. Finally we went to see the Wild Boars with their little Humbug piglets! Our lunch in the cafe was delicious and so fresh. We cannot recommend this highly enough.
Download our new audio App from Apple's App Store or Google Play Store and hear the stories of the castle brought alive. Our easy to navigate App is a fun way to find out about our turbulent history, our castle incumbents and their way of life through the ages. There's an audio tour for each room of the castle, so you can dip in and out as much as you wish, with voices from our Living History team who know and love the castle. Find out about Mary Queen of Scots' captivity, how Lord Scrope's army prepared for war, and how the servants made sure life included some luxuries as well as day to day chores to keep this home functioning, amongst other sneak peeks on life in a castle. It's time to immerse yourself in our history and find out more than you ever thought you needed to know! Free with entry, the audio App lets you unlock the stories behind the castle walls.
Bolton Castle in Wensleydale provides a huge range of exciting things to do in Yorkshire. From family days out to educational trips and historic tours you will find a raft of sights, sounds and smells which bring the castle to life and make for a truly memorable trip.
Bolton Castle is one of the country’s best preserved medieval castles; originally built as one of the finest and most luxurious homes in the land, the castle bears the scars of over 600 years of fascinating history. The castle is still in the private ownership of Lord Bolton, the direct descendant of the castle’s original owner Sir Richard le Scrope.