Doncaster Online Community, Pride of South Yorkshire, Donny Online

Doncaster: March 28, 2024, 5:18 pm

SITE SEARCH:
Visit our Doncaster eBay Store Here

E-GALLERY


Doncaster Rovers Photo's

JOIN US SOCIALLY!
join Donny on facebookFollow Donny on twitterfree email updates

FREE GRAPHICS
Donny Rocks button graphic for your web site
doncaster button for your web site

Home> Places to Visit>

Conisbrough Castle, in Doncaster, South Yorkshire

CONISBROUGH CASTLE

Conisbrough Castle at Donny OnlineConisbrough Castle boasts the finest Circular Norman Keep Tower in the UK. This testament to the Stone Masons of medieval England was built during the 1180s by the fifth Earl of Surrey, Hamelin Plantagenet half brother of the most powerful of the Angevin Kings of England, Henry II.

Once one of the de Warenne family's northern strongholds, it is reported in Leyland's Survey 1537-39, that a section of wall, the gatehouse and one of the floors of the Keep had all fallen.

By the time of the English Civil War of the 1640s the castle was pronounced to be Indefensible by the Parliamentary Forces of Oliver Cromwell, thereby escaping the destruction that awaited so many of England's finest castles.

Since that time little had been done to preserve the fabric of the monument until the middle of the twentieth century, when the castle was given into the care of the state.

In 1988 an agreement was reached between English Heritage, Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council and the recently formed Ivanhoe Trust. This agreement allowed the day to day management of the site to be carried out by the Trust. This was the first time in the history of English Heritage that a Management Agreement of this nature had been formed, allowing people living close by to over-see the operation of one of its Historic Monuments.

The Lodge is a Grade 2 listed building constructed around 1893 by the Lord Conyers.

In recent years the castle site has seen vast improvements, a specially designed Visitor Centre, the conversion of the custodian's lodge into Tea Rooms, the installation of flood lights and in 1994 the re-institution of the roof and floors of the eight hundred year old keep tower.

Today Conisbrough Castle attracts over 37,000 visitors per year from all over the world, each one takes home a lasting impression of one of the finest buildings of Medieval England.

Interactive 3D View

Street Map

  • You can zoom in and out using the controls on the left side of the map.
  • The map can move around by dragging with the mouse.
  • As this is powered by google maps which is still in beta it may lock from time to time. If this occurs please use your browsers refresh button to reload the map.

Facilities

The Castle Tea Rooms are situated on the ground floor of the old Custodians Lodge opposite the Visitor Centre.
The Tea Rooms are open seven days a week during the Summer (1 April to 30 September) and six days a week (closed Monday) during the Winter (1 October to 31 March).

OPENING TIMES

Summer Opening Times
1 April until 30 September

Monday to Sunday 10am until 5pm.
Winter Opening Times
1 October until 31 March

Monday to Sunday 10am until 4pm.
Last admissions to Conisbrough Castle are 40 minutes before closing each day.

Conisbrough Castle is closed Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Years Day.

Contact Details

Conisbrough Castle, Castle Hill,
Conisbrough, Doncaster. DN12 3BU.

Telephone: +44 (0)1709 863329
Fax: +44 (0)1709 866773