Brough Castle

Brough Castle is a romantic ruin in Church Brough, Cumbria which is managed by English Heritage and is free to enter.

The original castle was built in 1092 by William Rufus (King William II) on the site of the Roman fort of Verterae. Interestingly, the name Brough comes from 'Burg' which means 'fort' and you can still see the fort earthworks just before the entrance to the castle.

The fort would have been one of a series built around 80AD, approximately 14 miles apart along the Roman road from York to Carlisle. It was large enough to house up to 500 men and was in use until Roman withdrawal around 410AD.

The original castle built in 1092 was a timber castle which was completely destroyed by a fire during the Great Revolt in 1174. After the attack, stone from the abandoned Roman fort was then used to build the more robust Norman castle and later Henry II constructed the large stone keep in the 1180s, which still stands proudly today.

The castle reverted to the Crown in the very early 13th century and in 1203, King John gave the castle to Robert de Vieuxpont, who was a loyal servant to the Crown. This was a turbulent time in Anglo-Scottish relations and Robert de Vieuxpont made some improvements to the castle to defend it against many attacks. He added curtain walls, rebuilt the gatehouse and added domestic buildings, however, the castle was described as 'decayed' by 1253.

Lady Anne Clifford had quite a turbulent time of it and spent most of her life trying to obtain the rights to her inheritance. She eventually regained the Clifford family's lands in 1643, at the age of 53. After the civil war in 1649, she spent the next 26 years making improvements to the family castles of Brough, Brougham, Pendragon, Appleby and Skipton which can all be visited to this day.