Legend has it that at the end of the eighteenth century, a tunnel was discovered at Richmond Castle that was believed to lead to Easby, where
there is a ruined abbey.
It is said that the entrance to this tunnel was uncovered by soldiers but the passageway beyond was so narrow and full of rubble that they couldn’t fit
through it. So a little drummer boy was lowered in and the boy was told to
walk along the tunnel, banging his drum, whilst above ground the soldiers
would follow his drumming and learn where the tunnel led.
All was well at first. The soldiers walked along, listening carefully, and were
led out of the castle, across the marketplace and down towards the river.
It is told that they managed to follow the drumbeats all the way to Easby
woods but all of a sudden the drumming stopped, still some distance from Easby and the abbey.
The drumming never resumed and the Drummer Boy was never seen again.
A marker of the tunnel above ground is the Drummer Boy’s Stone, on the
path to Easby, pinpointing the spot where it’s said that the drumbeats of this
poor unfortunate lad were last heard.