Scarborough Castle was begun in the 1130s by Count William of Aumale. The curtain wall, with the steep, natural slopes of the cliffs, formed a roughly triangular site. In the 1150's, Henry II seized Scarborough and made improvements on the fortifications. He raised the great tower on Aumale's first work. It was 55 ft. square and was over 100 ft. tall, with pilaster buttresses, except on the south face, walls between 11-12 ft. thick, and 15 ft. thick on the west side. The tower stood on a battered plinth. It had a forebuilding on the south side, which was about 14 ft. tall, 30 ft. long, and 20 ft. wide, over a stone staircase, some of whose steps can be seen today. The tower was built of rough stone and mortar, and was faced with fine ashlar. The windows were rounded at the top, long and slender and were sometimes in pairs. Lower down the wall the windows were wider.
A narrow causeway on the west side connects the castle headland to the town. The barbican faces the town, is triangular in shape and has an entrance and exit in a large twin-cylindrical turreted gateway. The barbican was added by Edward III as a precaution against French raids during the Hundred Years War.
In September of 1474, Richard III was granted the castle and lordship of Scarborough. In June of 1484, Richard and his wife, Anne Neville, were at the castle. He supervised the outfitting of his ships, and he returned in July, to take charge of their rearming and revictualing.
Throughout its history, Scarborough was the site of many sieges. The first in 1312 when Piers Gaveston took refuge. The rebels did not take the castle but Gaveston surrendered when his supplies ran out. He was later executed at Warwick. In 1318, the Scots sacked the town but not the castle. During the Pilgrimage of Grace in 1536, there was an abortive attempt to seize Scarborough. In 1557, a group of rebels took Scarborough to protest to Queen Mary's Spanish marriage. During the Civil War, there were two more sieges, one in 1645 and the second in 1648. The castle endured more bombardment in 1914, when Scarborough was shelled by the German fleet.
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