"Town With A Castle" a Barnard Castle Travel Page by nickandchris

Nick's parents and sister live in the north east of England and often, when we travelled to see them, we would drive through Barnard Castle and say, "We must have a look at the castle one day." Eventually, in 2001, we decided to spend a weekend staying in the van around Barnard Castle. From here we visited Raby Castle and Middleton-in-Teesdale, both short hops away.

We stayed on a CL. near Cleatlam, a few miles north east of Barnard Castle, arriving on the Friday evening and calling in at an Indian takeaway for our evening meal.
On Saturday we had a look round the town and explored the castle, a fine drizzle falling persistently.
On Sunday we toured in the van and went to Raby Castle which was an amazing place.
On Sunday, on our way home, we called in at Middleton and enjoyed a pleasant walk along the river to the waterfalls.

Barnard Castle is an attractive, historical market town situated on the Durham side of the Tees, in County Durham, and is the capital of Teesdale. It's crowning glory is the 12th c. castle, built by Bernard Balliol, on banking overlooking the river Tees.The castle now belongs to English Heritage and is open to the public.
The town's other tourist attraction is the Bowes Museum, on the outskirts of B.C. This is home to a most amazing collection of collectables, clocks, costumes, pictures and textiles, to name but a few.
The town itself straggles uphill, in two distinct parts, with plenty of shops and eating places. It's a pretty easy place to drive through and there are carparks signposted. You have to visit the castle on foot.

We enjoyed our stay in this area but now Nick's parents have both died, we don't travel to the north east so much and we feel we have "done" Barnard Castle and surrounds.