Discount Hotels Scarborough
Historical interest: Scarborough
    
Iron Age tools from around 500 BC have been found on the rocky headland where
Scarborough Castle now stands, demonstrating Scarborough's antiquity. The Iron
Age settlement on Castle Cliff was followed in 370 AD by a Roman signal station,
one of a number along the Yorkshire coast. The signal station consisted of a
square tower set within square courtyard, but it is difficult to separate the
Roman remains from later medieval chapels within the castle. Roman signal stations
on the east coast were designed to protect the coast from the ravages of Anglo-Saxon
pirates from southern Jutland and Frisia but around 500 AD the Romans had vacated
the country and the Anglo-Saxons established a settlement at Scarborough. Over
four-hundred years later they were succeeded by the Vikings.
Scarborough Castle was built around 1130 by William Le Gros, Earl of Albermarle
in the reign of King Henry I. Le Gros defeated the Scots at The Battle of the
Standard near Northallerton in 1138. The castle was captured by Henry II who
rebuilt the keep between 1158 and 1168 and the castle became a Royal castle.
Further improvements to the castle were carried out by King John, Henry III
and Edward I. Around 1312 Scarborough Castle was given to Edward II's favourite
Piers Gaveston. The unpopular Gaveston was besieged in the castle by the barons,
captured and carried to Oxford for execution.
It was not Scarborough Castle's last siege. In 1536 the castle was held by
Sir Ralph Evers who held the castle for the king and withstood the siege of
Robert Aske during the Pilgrimage of Grace. In 1653, during the reign of Queen
Mary, the castle was taken by Thomas Stafford but he was later captured by the
Earl of Westmorland and beheaded on Tower Hill.
During the Civil War in 1644, Scarborough castle's commander Sir Hugh Cholmey
switched his allegiance from the Parliamentarians to the Royalists and had to
withstand a siege by Parliamentarians who eventually captured the castle in
1645. A colonel Boynton was put in charge of the castle but like Hugh Cholmley
he switched sides - this time from Parliamentarian to Royalist, but he was eventually
defeated in yet another siege in 1648. The last siege of all was the shelling
of the castle by German bombers during the Second World War.
Scarborough's development as a holiday resort began in 1620 when spa water
was discovered by Elizabeth Farrow, who claimed that the water had beneficial
qualities. She was perhaps influenced by the success of the spa at Harrogate.
The Gentry flocked to Scarborough to sample the qualities of the water's qualities
and Scarborough's development as a resort began, given an extra boost by the
development of the railways in the 1850s and culminating in the growth of the
busy coastal town with all its amusements and fun fairs that still exist today.
Selection of hotels in this region:
Grand Hotel Scarborough | | Raven Hall Hotel | | Grand Hotel Scarborough 3/4 night stay | | Hackness Grange | | The Hotel St Nicholas | | Clifton Hotel | | Wrea Head Hotel | | Royal Hotel | | Southlands Hotel | |
Click below for a
full list of hotels and online booking
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