iddleham Castle is a large stone-built castle located to the west of the River Ure in the North Riding of Yorkshire. The first castle was constructed shortly after the Conquest of England on the current site or possibly nearby by Alan, the Earl of Richmond or by Ribald, one of Alan's brothers. At this time the design of the castle would have been a motte and bailey type. A hundred years later, sometime between 1170 and 1190, the castle was remodelled by Robert Fitzralf (Fitz-Ranulf), the grandson of Ribald, who built the large stone keep. Robert's grandson did not have a male heir and when his eldest daughter married Robert de Neville, lord of Raby, the castle bacame the property of the Neville family. The castle remained in the Neville family for some 250 years and became the main residence of Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick the 'Kingmaker'.

n 1471, after the death of Warwick at the battle of Barnet, the castle's ownership passed to the Crown and became the proprty of Richard, Duke of Gloucester afterwards, Richard III, who spent a lot of time at the castle. The walls that surround the castle form a parallelogram measuring some 240 by 180 feet. At the corners of this curtain wall are four strong towers, three being square and one being semi-circular. The east and west curtain walls also have towers at their centres. The keep is divided into two halves down its length by a large dividing wall, a common design in keeps built at this time. It had two floors and possibly a third that was constructed at a later date. On the eastern side is a long flight of stairs leading to the entrance and barbican on the first floor. The ground floor, divided in two by the central wall, was vaulted. The first floor had state rooms, a large hall and garderobes built into the butresses. Many buildings were constructed around the perimeter of the inner ward.