What to See in Lancaster - Top Sights and Attractions

Medieval castle in Lancaster, England. Lancaster Castle is a medieval castle in Lancaster in the English county of Lancashire. Its early history is unclear, but may have been founded in the 11th century on the site of a Roman fort overlooking a crossing of the River Lune. In 1164, the Honour of Lancaster, including the castle, came under royal control. In 1322 and 1389 the Scots invaded England, progressing as far as Lancaster and damaging the castle. It was not to see military action again until the English Civil War. The castle was first used as a prison in 1196 although this aspect became more important during the English Civil War. The castle buildings are owned by the British sovereign as Duke of Lancaster; part of the structure is used to host sittings of the Crown Court.

Until 2011 the majority of the buildings were leased to the Ministry of Justice as Her Majesty's Prison Lancaster, after which the castle was returned to the Duchy's ownership. The castle is now open to the public seven days a week and is undergoing a large-scale refurbishment. There is a large sweeping public piazza, allowing access to the cloistered area, renovated in 2019. A new section of the café has been built, against the old outer curtain wall, which was reduced in height to afford views of the neighbouring Lancaster Priory. This is the first 21st-century addition to the castle. Another renovated building adjoining the café is leased to Lancaster University as a campus in the city with small conference facilities.^[2]

Museum in Lancaster, England. The Judges' Lodgings, formerly a town house and now a museum, is located between Church Street and Castle Hill, Lancaster, Lancashire, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building. The building is the oldest existing town house in Lancaster, and was also the first house in Lancaster to have shutters. It was used by judges when they attended the sessions of the Assize Court.

Use of the house by visiting judges ended in 1975, and the building was converted into a museum; featuring a museum of childhood, and the Gillow furniture collection. The future of the museum was put in doubt, following an announcement from Lancashire County Council that it would be closed permanently. Closure was initially proposed to take place on 31 March 2016, but it was deferred. In April 2018 it was announced the museum would open to the general public between Easter and the end of October 2019.^[5]

Theatre in Lancaster, England. The Grand Theatre in Lancaster, England is one of the oldest theatres in England and the third oldest in Britain, having been in near continuous use since 1782. Though it was seen numerous extensions and alterations, much of the original stone has survived. The theatre is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II listed building.

Prior to its construction, theatrical performances were held in barns and inns in Lancaster as early as the 1760s. for example during the summer of 1777, the play The Orphan of China by Arthur Murphy was performed in one of these temporary theatres.

The theatre was built in 1781, becoming one of the first permanent theatres in Britain. The theatre was opened in June 1782, by Joseph Austin (an actor) and Charles Edward Whitlock (a dentist), who managed a circuit of theatres across the north of England. It was known simply as "The Theatre, Lancaster".

In that first summer, the plays Hamlet and The Belle's Stratagem were performed at the theatre, and received good reviews. In 1795, Macbeth was performed, and playing Lady Macbeth was Sarah Siddons, who was the sister-in-law of Whitlock. In September 1833 Italian violinist Niccolò Paganini played at the theatre. By the end of the 1830s, the theatre was less used for performances, and increasingly used for meetings of the Temperance society and for formal lectures. In 1843 Edmund Sharpe bought the theatre, and after an extension and alteration, he reopened it in 1849 as a music hall as well as a museum for the local Literary and Natural History Society. By 1860 it was owned and operated by a private company called the Lancaster Athenaeum, which Sharpe founded.

The theatre was closed in 1882. In May 1884 the theatre found a new owner, Henry Wilkinson, who had the building was altered, and it was re-opened as the Athenaeum Theatre. In 1897 the theatre was modified again, including a new stage, by architect Frank Matcham.

The work of Matcham was lost when the building was badly damaged by fire in 1908. With the interior rebuilt in the same year (the new design by architect Albert Winstanley), it re-opened as The Grand Theatre.

The Grand Theatre seats 457 on two levels. It is owned by the Lancaster Footlights who started performing in the 1920s and bought the Grand Theatre in 1951 to save it from demolition. The Grand Theatre plays host to amateur and professional shows. There are plans for a major building programme, "New spaces", to start in 2009: one extension will provide new reception, foyer and bar space and another will provide rehearsal space, workshop, costume department and scenery storage space.^[11]

Lancaster Roman Fort, also known as Wery Wall, Galacum or Calunium, is the modern name given to ruined former Roman fort atop Castle Hill in Lancaster in North West England. The first castra was founded c. 80 AD within the Roman province of Britannia.

The fort's name is not known. A Roman milestone found four miles outside Lancaster, with an inscription ending L MP IIII, meaning "from L— 4 miles", suggests that it began with that letter. However in 1998 David Shotter suggested that Galacum, a name that has been associated with the fort at Over Burrow, would be more appropriately applied to Lancaster.

The fort is thought to be the origin of the name Lancaster. It appears in the Domesday Book as Loncastre, where "Lon" refers to the River Lune, with the Old English cæster (borrowed from the Latin castrum) for "fort".^[17]

Library in Bailrigg, England. The Ruskin - Library, Museum and Research Centre is an archive, university museum and research centre at University of Lancaster, in the north of England.

The Ruskin is home to The Ruskin Whitehouse Collection, the world's largest assemblage of works by artist, writer, environmentalist and social thinker John Ruskin (1819–1900), and his circle. The collection is on display in The Ruskin, the iconic museum at Lancaster University designed for the collection by Sir Richard MacCormac, and Brantwood, Ruskin's house, garden and estate on Coniston Water.

Prior to 2019, The Ruskin - Library, Museum and Research Centre was known as the Ruskin Library.

In 2019, the Collection was purchased by University of Lancaster, with support from the National Heritage Memorial Fund. The Ruskin launched on 26 September 2019 with the exhibition, ‘Ruskin: Museum of the Near Future’, to mark the bicentenary of Ruskin's birth in 1819.

In 2021, Lancaster University announced that The Ruskin would close to enable planned capital works to take place. During the temporary closure, The Ruskin's programmes of exhibitions, events, research and learning are taking place digitally and off-site.

The Ruskin is an Accredited Museum.

The Director of The Ruskin is Professor Sandra Kemp.^[19]