Bolton Castle is located in the North Riding of Yorkshire. The licence to crenellate was given in July 1379 to Richard Scrope, the Chancellor of England, who had complained that his land was being broken into and livestock and goods were being stolen. According to Leland, writing in the reign of King Henry VIII, Bolton Castle took 18 years to build at a cost of 1000 Marks each year of its construction and that it was completed in 1399. He also wrote that there was an Astronomical Clock in the courtyard and commented on the way smoke was conveyed from the hearth in the hall, through tunnels through the walls. Sir Francis Knollys describes Bolton as having “The highest walls of any house he had seen”. Richard Scrope must have been very wealthy as he also bought the Kingdom of The Isle of Man for his son William for £10000. The castle forms a rectangular block measuring 187 feet (north) by 125 feet (east) by 184 feet (south) and by 131 feet (west). The corner towers stand 95 feet high. (The English Castle, E.B. D'Auvgerne).

In July of 1568, Mary Queen of Scots was brought to the castle as a captive where she spent time in the south-west tower. As the castle did not have suitable luxuries befitting a queen, items of furniture were borrowed to make Mary's stay more pleasurable. Mary remained at the castle for six months uintil, in February 1569, she was moved to Tutbury Castle in Staffordshire.