The surviving fifteenth-century structures formed part of a fortified medieval palace belonging to the Archbishops of York, which was dismantled in the aftermath of the English Civil War.

The Saxon King Æthelstan probably built the first fortification at Cawood on the site of the present castle ruins.

[6] Cardinal Wolsey came to Cawood as Archbishop of York in 1530 and made himself popular with the villagers by putting right years of neglect.

[7] However, before he was installed as archbishop in York, the Earl of Northumberland arrested him on charges of high treason; Wolsey fell ill at Leicester on his way to London, and died.

The gatehouse served as a courthouse until the 1930s, before being used as an officers' mess and a building for the Home Guard during World War II.

The castle is now in the ownership of the Landmark Trust, which has restored the gatehouse as a holiday home, while leaving the two-storey banqueting hall sound and weathertight but not habitable.

Outside the banqueting hall can be seen remains of other structures – there were more modern farm buildings and a wall along the road, which were removed when the Landmark Trust took over the castle and restored it.