Robin Hood: From Barnsdale to Kirklees

A Gest of Robyn Hode opens in Barnsdale, where Little John and the outlaws find a knight on horseback in a back street. John welcomes him to the forest and tells him that his master, Robin Hood, is waiting dinner for him. The earliest ballads make Barnsdale Forest Robin's base, yet it has no village or parish of its own and no clear boundary. A small monument called Robin Hood's Well was moved around 1960 when the junction was built, so the real well is beneath the A1.

Location precision: Barnsdale was a loose district rather than a place, so the pin marks the middle of the area the ballads associate with Robin.

In York the monks of St Mary's Abbey sit down to dinner, discussing the knight whose debt of 400 pounds is due today. To their disappointment he appears at the gate. The abbey plays a central role in the Gest, and in the ballads the abbot is usually Robin's nemesis. Once one of the most prosperous abbeys in northern England, it now lies in ruins in the York Museum Gardens, while the abbot's house, built of brick in 1483, survives as the King's Manor.

Visitor guidance: The ruins lie in the York Museum Gardens; the abbot's house survives as the King's Manor.

On the day his debt falls due, the knight rides for Barnsdale with his company. At Wentbridge they pass a fair where a stranger has won the wrestling match and is in danger of being killed by the crowd. The knight orders his men to surround him, buys a cask of wine so that all may drink, and Robin meanwhile waits under the tree in the greenwood. The Gest does not name Wentbridge outright, but seems to allude to it; Robin Hood and the Potter does name it.

Location precision: The Gest does not name the place directly; Wentbridge is the usual reading, and the pin marks the village on the River Went.

Visitor guidance: The village is named for a bridge that carried the Great North Road over the River Went.

The Sheriff of Nottingham announces an archery contest for all the best archers of the North, with an arrow of red gold and a shaft of white silver as the prize. Robin takes only six men to shoot with him. Later in the Gest, the king commands a return to Nottingham and welcomes Robin and his men into his service with feasting, drinking and singing. The ballad names the town, not a building; in later legend the castle is where sheriff and outlaw have their final showdown. Today it has a children's adventure area in the old moat themed on Robin Hood's era.

Location precision: The Gest names Nottingham but no building; the pin marks the castle, where later legend places the sheriff.

Visitor guidance: Nottingham Castle reopened after a long redevelopment, with a Robin Hood themed adventure area in its old moat.

The line "Robyn hode in scherewode stod" comes from the first officially recorded Robin Hood song, copied around 1420, and Sherwood is also mentioned in Robin Hood and the Monk, though with little detail about the land itself. Local folklore says the Major Oak sheltered Robin and his Merry Men. Thought to be between 800 and 1,200 years old, it would have been a sapling at best in Robin's time. The RSPB confirmed in June 2026 that the tree has died; it will remain standing.

Location precision: The ballads place Robin in Sherwood without naming any spot; the oak is a folklore attribution, not a ballad site.

Visitor guidance: The Major Oak stands in Sherwood Forest near Edwinstowe, a protected nature reserve managed by the RSPB.

In Robin Hood and the Monk, Robin goes to Nottingham for Mass and refuses Much's advice to take at least twelve men, setting out with only Little John. At St Mary's a monk whom he had robbed sees him and tells the sheriff. Robin fights with a two-handed sword, killing twelve of the sheriff's men, until the blade breaks against the sheriff and he runs into the church. Little John and Much later get into the prison, kill the jailer and escape with him. St Mary's is the oldest parish church in Nottingham, on High Pavement in the Lace Market.

Visitor guidance: St Mary's stands on High Pavement in the Lace Market.

Robin and his men spend a year in the royal court. Then Robin asks the king for leave to make a pilgrimage to his chapel of Mary Magdalene in Barnsdale, and the king grants him seven days. Back in the greenwood he shoots a hart and blows his horn, and the outlaws welcome him home. There he remains for twenty-two years. Historian John Paul Davis argues for the church at Campsall, the only Mary Magdalene church in medieval Barnsdale; local legend adds that Robin and Maid Marion were married there.

Location precision: The Gest names the chapel but not its village; Campsall is one historian's identification, not a proven site.

Years later, Robin's kinswoman, the prioress of Kirkley, and her lover Sir Roger of Doncaster plot to kill him; she lets him bleed to death when he comes for treatment. In Robin Hood's Death he takes only Little John, trusting the prioress as his cousin, and she treacherously lets out too much blood. Little John would set fire to the priory, but Robin forbids it. All that remains of the Cistercian nunnery is the double-aisled barn, parts of the Old Farm House and the gatehouse, where Robin is thought to have been staying.

Location precision: The ballads say Kirkley or Churchlees; Kirklees Priory near Brighouse is the traditional identification.

In the later version of Robin Hood's Death, the dying Robin shoots one final arrow and asks Little John to bury him where it falls. A monument in Kirklees Park, in private woodland 650 metres from the priory gatehouse, is said to mark the spot. Its epitaph is probably a forgery, though a marker may have stood here as early as the 16th century; the first definite reference is Richard Grafton's chronicle of 1569. A 2015 radar survey found no sign of a burial. The stone is walled because workers once chipped off pieces as a toothache cure.

Location precision: The tradition places the grave near Kirklees Priory, but nothing proves a burial; the pin marks the monument.