0 Are you going to Scarborough... Castle?

Today was a beautiful spring day.  We didn't have anything planned, so I suggested going to the coast and Paul wanted to mark another spot on our giant England map, so we chose Scarborough.  It's only an hour and 45 minutes away, so we got the dogs in the car and drove off.  It was a gorgeous drive, worth the trip in itself.  We went through many small towns and even saw some of the moors.  Scarborough Castle is built on a small peninsula, which is believed to have eroded about 90 meters since the Bronze Age, the earliest known human presence.  There was a Roman signal station here, then the castle in it's various stages of development.

 

On the higher part of the cliff is a playground, skate/bmx park, and sitting area with benches looking over the ocean.  From here you can see Scarborough Castle.

This is the castle keep, the central area that was originally where everyone, including the king, stayed.  Obviously the wooden floor and fencing are more recent, because the original wooden floors have rotted in the past 900 years.

These are the remnants of the King's Chamber, built by King John in the early 13th century.  It was turned into a brick army barracks in the 19th century, then was destroyed along with a lot of the castle ruins in WWII.

Max got jealous that there's never pictures of him at the ruins, so he posed in the King's Hall.  

The view from the castle keep.  I'd build my house here too!

Along one side of the peninsula.

The other side of the coast from the castle. 

Here Sloan and Paul are reading the sign about St. Mary's Chapel.  It was built around 1000 A.D.  There is a well under this bit of ruins that is believed to be one of the original Roman wells. 

The only current castle residents- lots of seagulls!

The current Church of St. Mary.  It's the "new" one, from the 14th century.

What does a church do to make some money in a busy town with narrow streets?   Use that big area of land out front for a car park!  Oh, wait, there's gravestones there...

Is this what they did with the gravestones they moved for parking?  I don't know, but I doubt people are buried in a wavy line! (click on it to enlarge)

A road on our way back, in the moors.  I bet it's really pretty in summer!