Legend
Mary's Lost Shawl
The briars betrayed the queen.
Stand where it happened
- What's there
- A great square castle and a wooded ridge
- Legend from
- Wensleydale tradition
- Best time
- Any
- Tone
- Romantic
Racing through the woods, the captive queen's shawl caught on the briars.
Mary, Queen of Scots was held at Bolton Castle in Wensleydale for about six months from July 1568, with her own rooms and servants. The Darlington and Stockton Times retells the legend: bored with captivity, she dodged her guards, climbed from a window and fled along the high wooded path towards Leyburn. Hounds bayed behind her. As she ran, her shawl caught on briars and was torn away, and the shawl showed her pursuers where she had gone. The wooded ridge at Leyburn is still called the Shawl. It is also said she scratched 'Marie R' on a castle window with a diamond.