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Fifteen miles southwest of Bishop Auckland, the skeletal remains of Barnard Castle (April-Sept daily 10am-6pm; Oct daily 10am-5pm; Nov-March Wed-Sun 10am-4pm; often closed 1-2pm for lunch; GBP2.40; EH), poking out from a cliff high above the River Tees, overlook the town which grew up in its shadow. First fortified in the eleventh century, the castle was long a stronghold of the Balliols, a Norman family interminably embroiled in the struggle for the Scottish crown. It was one of this clan, Bernard, who built the circular tower which survives to this day, an impressive thirteenth-century fortification just to the right of the later Round Tower, where a beautiful oriel window carries the emblematic boar of Richard III, one of the subsequent owners. Castle aside, the prime attaction is the grand French-style chateau that constitutes the Bowes Museum (daily 11am-5pm; GBP4, GBP2 on first Sat of month; free guided tours May-Sept Tues-Sat 11.30am & 2pm, Oct Sat & Sun 11.30am & 2pm; ), half a mile east of the centre, up Newgate. Begun in 1869, the chateau was commissioned by John and Josephine Bowes, a local businessman and MP and his French actress wife, who spent much of their time in Paris collecting ostentatious treasures and antiques - including furniture, paintings, tapestries, ceramics and incidental curiosities, notably a late eighteenth-century mechanical silver swan in the lobby which still performs daily at 2pm, preening to a brief forty-second melodic burst. Among the paintings, you'll find the most important Spanish collection in the UK, including El Greco's The Tears of St Peter ; elsewhere, there's varied interest in the French decorative and religious art, English period furniture, and an excellent toy collection - whose nineteenth-century lead soldiers were made possible by the new industry in nearby Stanhope. Back in the town centre, it's a pleasant mile-and-a-half walk from the castle, southeast along the banks of the Tees, to the shattered ruins of Egglestone Abbey (free access), a minor Premonstratensian foundation dating from 1195 (this and other short hikes from the town centre are covered by leaflets available from the tourist office). You can also get here on bus #79 from Barnard Castle, getting off at Abbey Bridge End. Buses stop on either side of central Galgate - once the road out to the town gallows, hence the name. The tourist office , on Flatts Road, is at the end of Galgate by the castle (April-Oct daily 10am-6pm; Nov-March Mon-Sat 11am-4pm; tel 01833/690909, tourism@teesdale.gov.uk ). Among several convenient B&Bs , the welcoming Homelands , 85 Galgate (tel 01833/638757, ; no credit cards; GBP40-50), offers pretty bedrooms and good breakfasts, and the similar Marwood View , along the same road at no. 98 (tel 01833/637493, ; no credit cards; GBP40-50) provides a fitness room and sauna for guests to work off the effects of the home-cooked dinners. Moving upmarket, try the Old Well Inn , 21 The Bank (tel 01833/690130, ; GBP60-70), an originally Tudor coaching inn with huge en-suite rooms and weekend half-board deals. The town is also ringed by campsites , including a Camping and Caravanning Club site with plenty of facilities at Lartington, two miles west of the centre (tel 01833/630228; closed Nov-Feb; bus #95 towards Middleton). For food , the Market Place Teashop , 29 Market Place, is an excellent traditional tearoom with daily special meals on a blackboard. Oldfield's , at 7 The Bank (tel 01833/630700; closed Sun eve), is a smart, modern place with courtyard seating, where you can choose between good-value set menus and a la carte seafood specialities. The town's top restaurant of the moment is Blagrave's House at 30-32 The Bank (tel 01833/637668; closed Sun), a sixteenth-century former inn sporting low-beamed ceilings and large open fires, with affordable set menus (not Sat).
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