Barnard Castle is spectacularly set on a high rock above the River Tees, on the fringe of an attractive market town. Taking its name from its 12th-century founder, Bernard de Balliol, this huge and imposing fortress was later developed by the Beauchamp family and Richard III. Richard’s boar emblem is carved above a window in the inner ward, the castle’s chief strength: here loyalist forces were besieged during the 1569 Northern Rising against Queen Elizabeth, before surrendering to 5,000 rebels. There are fine views over the Tees Gorge, and a ‘sensory garden’ of scented plants and tactile objects.