Skelton Hall : Attractions of York

Skelton Hall was the home of John Hall-Stevenson, friend of Laurence Sterne, in the mid 1700s. it was situated in the village of Skelton, York.

Sadly there is no picture of the old castle which was pulled down and rebuilt at the end of the eighteenth century. Some have suggested that the illustration for the frontispiece of Stevenson’s “Crazy Tales” represents old Skelton Castle. However it looks like no other Norman castle and like the surrounding scenery is probably a creation of the illustrator’s imagination.

A hundred years after Sterne’s death, Skelton still held his memory, an area near the wood above Skelton Mill being called Sterne’s Seat and the wood behind is Mount Shandy (named after Sterne’s famous novel Tristram Shandy).