Raby Castle

Staindrop, Darlington, County Durham, DL2 3AH. 

Although the land here goes back to the time of King Cnut (Canute the Second or Great) in the eleventh century it was the mighty Neville family who built the actual castle during the fourteenth. Cecily Neville was the mother of two kings of England but their downfall came during the failed plot known as the “Rising of the North” in 1569 when they supported the Catholic Mary Queen of Scots against Queen Elizabeth the First. The castle and lands were seized by the crown until they were sold on by King Charles the First to Sir Henry Vane in 1626. The land included Barnard Castle but Sir Henry chose Raby as his home and took the roof and a great deal of stonework from Barnard Castle. Hence there was not much to see by Dominic Cummings when he famously went to test his eyesight there during the Covid outbreak in 2020. Today, Raby is the seat of Lord and Lady Barnard of the Vane family and is privately owned.

The entrance and walled garden went through a major restoration in 2023 and the entrance and exit are along the same route to the main road. The car park is large and you can pay for just the gardens or include the Castle and or the Plotter’s Forest Children’s adventure play area in your fee for a larger amount.

The first thing you see on entering to the walled garden are the massive yew hedges and they are on a par with the ones at Powis Castle in Wales. Obviously they have been growing here for several hundred years to get to this size and must certainly appreciate the ground conditions. The form looks as if it was once regular but over the years it (or they, as there are more than one) have developed a wavy form of their own through constant clipping and the different reaches of the many gardeners that have attended to them over time.

The yew specimen at one end of the walled garden has obviously been in many years too. I had a chat with one of the friendly gardeners who was clipping the new yew hedges. He told name that the walls were hollow and in the winter fires were lit to heat the insides which were tended by little boys. This was to keep the espaliered fruit trees trained up them happy and growing as it was once a productive garden for the household. I was also surprised that he was clipping the miles of new yew with secateurs (a real labour of love) and he told me it was so he could get a better straight edge than he could do with heavy power tools as the weight of them, along with tired arms, inevitably gave a wavy edge. There’s a free tip for you and anyone who thinks topiary is a fast process!

Much of the original productive garden of the 1770’s fell into decline however and has been altered since it’s Victorian heyday. The pond is in its original place and was provided to give water for tending the vegetables and other crops. The designer of the current 21st century garden is the award winning Italian Luciano Giubbilei and with five acres of walled garden to work with everything is on a grand scale. There are miles of box parterres and hedges in various designs as well as yew mazes and the whole thing has a spiritual feel. For those of you who like a few flowers there are also borders around the edges.

So if you have ever wondered how the gardeners clip giant yew hedges in these days of “elf and safety” then see the above picture. You need to be a master of cherry picker driving as well as have an eye for the finished product.

The walled garden is worth seeing just on its own, as we did, however the castle itself houses a range of art, textiles and furniture from England and Europe dating from the 17th to the 20th Century. It looks every inch the medieval castle from the outside and was a Parliamentary stronghold during the English Civil War so all I can do is paraphrase Oliver Cromwell by saying “in the name of God go”.

All photographs by Anthony Blagg