Qualla: Skipsea Castle https://qualla.com/skipsea-castle en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:24 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/x/g/skipsea-castle-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Skipsea Castle https://qualla.com/skipsea-castle Skipsea Castle: Introduction https://qualla.com/skipsea-castle/ Photo credit Hchc2009, CC BY-SA 4.0. Archaeologists drilled core samples through the great mound at Skipsea in 2016. What came back changed the way people read the site. The mound that everyone had taken for a Norman earthwork, raised in 1086 to plant a motte and bailey castle over the conquered Holderness, turned out to be much older. Seeds and organic matter dated the construction to around 400 BC, in the middle Iron Age, comparable to Silbury Hill in Wiltshire. Drogo de la Beuvriere, the Flemish mercenary William the Conqueror handed Holderness to, had not built the mound. He had simply chosen to plant his timber keep on top of a monument his Iron Age predecessors had already raised, a millennium and a half earlier, for reasons we still do not understand.

Read more: Skipsea Castle on Qualla

Image: Hchc2009 | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/x/g/skipsea-castle-wp/gcxg-skipsea-castle-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Skipsea Castle: Drogo's Reluctant Lordship https://qualla.com/skipsea-castle/ Photo credit Mainlymazza, CC BY-SA 3.0. After the Norman Conquest and the brutal Harrying of the North in 1069 to 1070, William the Conqueror needed loyal men holding the frontier against Danish counter-invasion. He gave Holderness to Drogo de la Beuvriere, a Flemish mercenary, and made him the first Lord of Holderness...

Read more: Skipsea Castle on Qualla

Image: Mainlymazza | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/x/g/skipsea-castle-wp/gcxg-skipsea-castle-drogos-reluctant-lordship.mp3 0:06 2 full Skipsea Castle: Suspicious Death and the Counts of Aumale https://qualla.com/skipsea-castle/ Photo credit Victuallers, CC BY-SA 3.0. Drogo did not enjoy his lordship for long. His wife, who was reportedly a kinswoman of William the Conqueror, died in suspicious circumstances. Drogo fled England rather than face questions. The Conqueror reassigned Skipsea to Odo, the Count of Aumale, and the castle passed throu...

Read more: Skipsea Castle on Qualla

Image: Victuallers | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/x/g/skipsea-castle-wp/gcxg-skipsea-castle-suspicious-death-and-the-counts-of-aumale.mp3 0:06 3 full Skipsea Castle: Slighting the Castle in 1221 https://qualla.com/skipsea-castle/ Photo credit Phil Williams, CC BY-SA 2.0. In January 1220 William de Forz, the Count of Aumale by marriage, rebelled against the young King Henry III over the seizure of the manor of Driffield and other grievances. Henry excommunicated him and ordered the northern barons to besiege his castles. Royalist forces took Skips...

Read more: Skipsea Castle on Qualla

Image: Phil Williams | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/x/g/skipsea-castle-wp/gcxg-skipsea-castle-slighting-the-castle-in-1221.mp3 0:06 4 full Skipsea Castle: A Motte 100 Metres Wide https://qualla.com/skipsea-castle/ Photo credit Tom Corser, CC BY-SA 2.0 uk. The site you can walk today is one of the largest motte-and-bailey castles in England. The motte itself is 100 metres in diameter and 11 metres high, built deliberately onto the existing Iron Age mound with sand and gravel to make it appear even larger. A bank and a ten-metre-wid...

Read more: Skipsea Castle on Qualla

Image: Tom Corser | CC BY-SA 2.0 uk

]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/x/g/skipsea-castle-wp/gcxg-skipsea-castle-a-motte-100-metres-wide.mp3 0:06 5 full