Ravensworth is a village and civil parish in the Holmedale valley, within the Richmondshire district of North Yorkshire, England.

There are a number of listed buildings situated around the village green, mostly dating from the eighteenth century.

Today, Ravensworth is primarily a commuter village, and the historically important agricultural sector now employs only a small number of people.

[4] Bodin later relinquished his lands in order to become a monk, and the estate was passed to his brother, Bardolph, from whom the FitzHugh line is descended.

A fortress was built during the reign of Henry II as the ancestral home of the Fitzhugh family, who purchased the land from the nuns of Marrick Priory.

[6] The fortress would have offered protection to the local population during Scottish raids from north of the border.

Following his death, it passed to his son, a minor, William Parr, 1st Marquess of Northampton by which time it was ruined, largely as a result of being quarried for local building materials.

[11] The castle began to be pulled down in the middle of the 16th century, shortly after the visitation by the antiquarian John Leland, however almost the entirety of the gatehouse remains intact.

The ancient parish encompassed an area of 15,000 acres, including Ravensworth itself, as well as the townships of Dalton, Gayles, Kirby Hill (or Kirby-on-the-Hill), New Forest, Newsham and Whashton.

As with many English villages, much of the housing stock consists of Grade II listed buildings, dating from the mid to late 17th century onwards.

[19] The astronomer William Lax was born in the village in 1761, producing A Method of finding the latitude by means of two altitudes of the sun there in 1799.

[24][25] Walter Scott referenced the village in "Rokeby" (1813), an epic poem set in the area.

[31] In the late nineteenth century, Speight noted the great longevity of many of the parishioners, owing to the space and pure air.

The school educated the Archbishop of Canterbury Matthew Hutton and the antiquarian James Raine as well as the aforementioned Shaw and Lax.

[37][38] His 17th century farmhouse situated on a 30-acre estate is his "most treasured possession" and Botham has commented that, "we like our Yorkshire home too much ever to leave it".

Current Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who represents the Richmond (Yorks) UK Parliamentary constituency, is the MP.

According to The Independent the village is "good walking country...surrounded by open countryside overlooked by hills and moorland.

[3] Most of the land around the village is arable farmland, although livestock such as horses are also reared, and sheep graze on the more rugged sides of the valley.

The houses are generally built of sandstone and have distinctive "Yorkshire" roofs, a mix of soft red pantiles and slate.

[53] On 2 December 2010, a temperature of -20.0 degrees Celsius was reported for Ravensworth by the Met Office; this was the first time -20.0 had been recorded in England since January 1987.

[54] In September 2012, Ravensworth made national news when MeteoGroup reported that the village had received the largest amount of rainfall in the country, 130.8 mm, (5.16 inches) between 1 am on the 23rd and 8 am on the 25th, which was thrice the average total for the month.

[36][57][58] Many people commute to the local market towns of Richmond, Barnard Castle, Northallerton and Darlington, but some travel further afield to the larger conurbations of Tyneside, Teesside and Leeds.

Ravensworth Nurseries (trading as "Bradbrook & Hannah") was one of Yorkshire's most successful horticultural businesses.

[64] Founded in 1966, it supplied garden centres and retailers across the United Kingdom as well as its own on-site sales.

[68] Ravensworth contains a Church of England primary school which had 68 pupils in 2010 and a village hall.

A Church of England church situated at Kirby Hill, a local farm shop, a 5-acre caravan park and a further three public houses are all within an approximately one mile radius, although only The Bay Horse Inn is situated in the village proper.

Newspaper coverage is provided by the Darlington-based Northern Echo, which has a North Yorkshire edition, and the Teesdale Mercury based in Barnard Castle.

Bus services which operate throughout the day connect the village to the nearby towns of Richmond and Barnard Castle.