The county of North Yorkshire is home to some of the most beautiful locations in not only the United Kingdom but the entire world as a whole. This shouldn't come as a surprise to anybody familiar with England because the country itself is easily one of the most gorgeous on the planet. From the rolling hills to the foggy dales to the stunning countryside England and the United Kingdom offer visceral thrills beyond belief. North Yorkshire, though, has the famed Yorkshire Downs as the ace in the hole and nobody can argue that the tall, sweeping hills looking down amid the winding rivers isn't one of the most spectacular sights ever witnessed. Any town within North Yorkshire is treated to such beautiful images and thus it can be hard to single out one town in the county as being more beautiful than any other. What the town of Knaresborough has on its side, however, is the fact that it is one of the most historically significant towns in the country aside from being one of the most beautiful. Most of the lovely towns in North Yorkshire are no doubt appealing but some of the appeal can be rather shallow and base; after all, the history in a lot of these Yorkshire Downs towns is fairly bland and repetitive. Knaresborough, on the other hand, is filled to the brim with exciting tales in its long and storied past.
Knaresborough Castle is perhaps the most visible and incredible edifices in the town and, not surprisingly, it dates back all the way to the days when the Norman Empire had a strong and mighty fist that held the rest of what would become England down under its sweeping rule. Most assume that the castle originated sometime in the 1100s and it was also around that time that Knaresborough began to grow into the town that it would become. It had a market square and was mentioned in the Domesday Book during that century and those two features in conjunction were often the catalyst needed for a village to blossom into a city.
Unfortunately, Knaresborough Castle is nowhere near as beautiful as it must have been during its glory days. This is due to the fact that it was largely destroyed during the Battle of Marston Moor. The Battle of Marston Moor was one of the more bloody fights during the incredibly destructive English Civil War. Parliamentarians and Royalists killed each other in stunning numbers and destroyed some of the greatest buildings ever erected in the process. Knaresborough Castle was not exempt from the senseless leveling of man-made treasures and thus it stands as a pale imitation of what used to be. One can only hope that no future wars will further ruin what is already a wounded veteran of mindless destruction. Should the unthinkable happen, however, it is recommended that you visit Knaresborough as soon as humanly possible lest even more priceless artifacts from days long since past fall prey to the often violent and ruinous hand of man.
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