It would seem that the original keep was late Transition or pointed Norman, and therefore might well have been built, as supposed, by Robert de Ros, surnamed Fursan, who held the lordship from 1184 to 1226, and probably completed the work before 1200. Then came the alteration in the first floor in a most decided early English style, and therefore probably by Robert de Ros, Fursan’s grandson, who married the heiress of Belvoir, and flourished between 1257 and 1285. Then followed the addition of the upper story, and of the battlements and turrets, all rather late Decorated. This might well be the work of William de Ros, who held Helmsley from 1317 to 1342, to whom, in 1337, was granted the tower built by Edward II. in London, near Baynard’s Castle, and which seems to have stood on the bank of Fleet-ditch, where some ancient foundations were recently laid open in the formation of the new street. This he was to hold as appendant to his Castle of Helmsley. The domestic buildings standing opposite to the keep are composed of two blocks. One a square mass of great height, and with walls of considerable thickness, has traces of transition Norman or early English work, but has undergone alteration in the Decorated period, and finally in that of the sixteenth century. The other or northern building may be on early foundations, and probably is so, but its fittings are of the sixteenth century, and probably the work of the Earl of Rutland, whose armorial bearings are embossed in plaster on a deep cornice and on the panelled ceiling, all now in the last stage of decay. The northern gatehouse, and any structure that may have stood upon the smaller barbican, have disappeared utterly from sight, though probably their foundations could be laid open. To the south there is more to be seen. The inner gatehouse indeed is ruined, and nothing is visible above the rubbish save the outline of the western jamb, which shows a portcullis groove and rebate for folding-gates. The outer gatehouse and its barbican form a very remarkable work. This barbican is, as has been stated, an expansion of the bank which surrounds the inner ditch. It is here above 80 feet broad, and long enough to cover completely the southern front of the place. The gatehouse, like that behind it, is much nearer to the east than to the west end of the work. It is composed of two small round turrets, and two large drum-towers flanking the portal. On either side of these extend the curtains, which terminate in a pair of large drum-towers, which flank and close the outwork.