Fancy Owning a Castle?

Well, now you can! (for, um, £21m!)

Who hasn’t wanted to own a castle and be their own lord? Well, if you have a spare £21m ($25.7m) loitering in your bank account, you’re in luck. It was recently announced the beautiful Ripley Castle in North Yorkshire is being put up for sale, the first time in its 700-year history it has hit the market.

The castle, located a handful of miles north of the spa town Harrogate and on the edge of the gorgeous Yorkshire Dales, is a striking home, more palace than fortress these days and historically significant for its political, military and religious past. The Ripley estate came into the ownership of Sir Thomas Ingleby in around 1308, during the early reign of Edward II, when he married heiress Edeline Thweng. The estate has remained in Ingleby hands ever since, passing through 26 generations. Until now, at least.

Sir Thomas’s son, also named Thomas, gained some degree of renown when on a hunting trip he allegedly saved Edward III from being injured by a wild boar, which earned him a knighthood and a new crest bearing a boar’s head.

As the Inglebys grew in prominence, becoming dependable members of the northern gentry, they updated their principal seat to reflect their emerging status. Sir John inherited the estate as a five-year-old boy in 1439 and lived throughout the Wars of the Roses period, where he doesn’t seem to have made many waves. He was responsible for the construction of the gatehouse before abandoning his young family to become a monk at the nearby Monk Grace Priory. During the reign of Henry VII, Ingleby would be described by the first Tudor king as ‘my captain and envoy’ during diplomatic missions, and in 1496 was appointed bishop of Llandaff in South Wales.

Future generations of Inglebys continued their reliable service, although not always on the right side of the monarch – Sir William was High Sheriff of Yorkshire in 1564, but one of his sons, a priest named Francis, was hanged, drawn and quartered in York in 1586 as a recusant Catholic. Indeed, another Catholic priest named Christopher Wharton was captured on the Ripley estate in 1598 and also executed.

The Inglebys were also implicated in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, when another Sir William briefly allowed the plotters to stay at Ripley – one of the main conspirators, Robert Winter, was his nephew. Sir William was arrested but acquitted, spared the torture and death that greeted some of the other plotters.

In 1642, yet another Sir William was made Baronet Ingleby for supporting Charles I during the English Civil War, though two years later was present at the king’s resounding defeat at the battle of Marston Moor, not too far from Ripley in North Yorkshire. According to legend, this William’s sister Jane, a staunch royalist known as Trooper Jane, was also a combatant at Marston Moor, dressed as a man in full armour. Tradition states she even held Oliver Cromwell at gunpoint in the castle library when he arrived looking for her brother, who was hiding in a priesthole.

Created three times for the family, today, the Inglebys still retain the rank of Baronet – the present owner, who is selling, is Thomas Ingleby, the 6th Baronet. The squared gritstone and ashlar house which greets visitors today was heavily restored and rebuilt between 1783-86.

It features a central two-storey block flanked by a mid-16th century crenellated tower at one end and a three-storey wing at the other. Also charming are the walled gardens, stone stair turret, the range of large mullioned windows, and a series of Tudor-arched fireplaces in rooms featuring authentic Tudor panelling. The 260ft gatehouse, built by Bishop Ingleby during the 15th century, still stands to the south of the main complex. The 445 acres estate also includes the excellent Boar’s Head Hotel, extensive woodland, a gift and coffee shop, and even the village cricket ground.

You can view the listing (and submit your offer, perhaps?) HERE