Photographs of Pickering Castle

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Pickering Castle was first a timber and earth motte and bailey castle and rebuilt in stone later in between 1180 and 1187. The top of the motte has a shell keep and the inner bailey is surrounded by a curtain wall. The original entrance to Pickering Castle was the two-storey, 12th century Coleman Tower. The restored chantry chapel of St Nicholas, built in 1227 and the foundations of the early to mid 12th century Old Hall also stand in the inner bailey.
In 1324-26 King Edward II replaced the timber palisade which encased the outer bailey with a curtain wall. The wall is flanked by a gatehouse and three rectangular towers, one having a small postern gate at its base, with its own drawbridge to cross the outer ditch. Much of this 14th century curtain wall, and the three square towers set within the wall, have survived.