Favourite Castle

I like Pembroke Castle mainly because of the memories of my kids running around on the massive map!

Sorn. For no reason other than my son is getting married there on Saturday.  https://sorncastle.com/

He used to work for the family that built Castel Coch up there on page 1, and while he was doing so met his bride to be. He then managed the Sorn Castle and Estate for a while.

Stirling.

A proper castle: pivotal role in much of Scottish history, guarding the lowest crossing point of the River Forth, and Europe’s largest medieval banqueting hall.

Makes me go “wow” every morning on my morning dog walk.

maine XXXX

Forter Castle in Glenisla. It was restored in the 90s(?) and can now be hired

Here are mine

Rhuddlan Castle – Round the corner from where I grew up.  More history than some of the more famous bigger castles down the coast.

Denbigh Castle – because with its town walls it is huge, but completely missed by everyone heading to Conwy and Caernarfon

Castell y Brere – surrounded by towering mountains (inc Cader Idris), miles from anywhere, and built by the Welsh not English.  It feels like not just the castle was abandoned, but the valley it sits in was abandoned as well, to just a couple of farms.

Maiden Castle, the size is truly without taking into account how old it is and that it must have all been hand dug

I spent a lot of time working at Windsor Castle, so that ranks quite highly for me. Definitely a “show castle”, but walking out past the Round Tower in the wee small hours of a freezing foggy winter morning is very evocative. Plus just being allowed to do the stuff we used to do there makes it pretty special.

In a similar vein – did a gig at Sterling Castle – dinner in the Hall, followed by a scottish marching band in the courtyard outside lit by flaming torches.

We spent a week living in Clytha Castle  (Landmark Trust property) with the inlaws when my nephew was tiny and the MIL was terminally ill, but still functional. That has good memories. A toy castle, but fun to experience.

In terms of “proper” ones, the north/west  coastal welsh ones have always done it for me. Caenarvon, Conway, Beaumaris, Harlech.

I think I prefer ruined castles to intact ones. Many of the intact ones are fairly gentrified inside and I think the fun I had as a kid running around ruined ones and getting into imaginary swordfights makes them the winners for me.

I haven’t been to Raglan Castle, but I nearly went on a recent holiday and looking at some pictures of it I reckon I should definitely go there at some point:

Castle Sween as I grew up a mile from it as a kid, good memories of the area, and also MacLellans Castle in the centre of my town where I also grew up as a kid (and still live in town)

Castle Sween, oldest castle on Scottish mainland

MacLellans Castle

Windsor is probably the “best” as it’s the biggest & is still in use, but my favourite is Dover as it’s fairly local to me so I went there a lot as a kid! There’s a lot of history there especially with the Roman lighthouse (UKs oldest complete freestanding building?) and Napoleonic/WW2 tunnels (was used as the HQ during Operation Dynamo and there is a cool museum/exhibit in the tunnels). The inside has been decorated with tapestries/furniture/things in the kitchens etc showing how it would’ve looked during the time of Henry II which now makes it very different from just wandering around Yet Another Ruined Empty Castle.

I think I prefer ruined castles to intact ones. Many of the intact ones are fairly gentrified inside

yes this is because most of the “proper” defensive castles were ruined at the end of the Civil War so intact castles tend to be “show” castles i.e. just made to look fancy and not the sites of actual battles etc!

I just can’t get enough of the castle in Gibraltar.

It’s Moorish

colpFull Member
I just can’t get enough of the castle in Gibraltar.

It’s Moorish

Get out………get out… now

It’s got to be Windsor Castle or me… I used to look after the IT equipment that moved down there when the Royal family were in residence. It meant I could drive in through the main entrance up to park by the Royal Appartments. Once when I arrived whilst the person I needed to see wasn’t available for a little while they apologised I was given free rein of the Royal library and have a “private viewing of the Leonardo drawings while I waited.

big fan of Caerlaverock in D&G.

a proper fighting castle, none of this ‘grain store’ or ‘ladies quarters’ or ‘bath house’.  Built for war WAR

Barnard Castle is meant to be nice, but I couldn’t see much when I went, I think a recent bought of covid had affected me.

Leeds, it’s in Kent.

1) It’s more of a posh house, but I had a go at archery there and I hit a zombie in the eye from 10 yards

2) You get to make silly statements like “Leeds, it’s in Kent” and get away with it.

Ewloe Castle, in my local park, loved clambering over it as a child. Even today its a nice walk up thru the park woods to it.

https://restaurantguru.com/Golden-Castle-Stalybridge-2#google_vignette     Banging sweatchilli chicken

Castle square, Sheffield. Stunning!

Edlingham Castle for its location and the fact that part of it has a ‘precarious’ lean.

Prudhoe Castle very local to me, and reputedly the only castle in the north never to fall to the Scots 😉

Raby Castle (although ive only been there to visit Santa Claus.

Featherstone Castle and Bellister purely for the Ghost stories

Oh and Northumberland has more castles than any other county in England (but keep shtum on that 🙂

I almost said ewloe but couldn’t spell it.

Its awesome as is flint

St Mawes I like for being a mini version of Pendennis, but with gardens as it was a private residence for a while.

St Michaels Mount for it’s position, silhouette, tales and all the time spent crossing the causeway in vans when the tide really wasn’t right for it.

Raglan and Dinefwr are probably our local favourites now, but plenty around Wales.

Castel Dinas Bran. It’s no great looker but the setting is just magical.

Corfe is just a bit magical especially when you see it from a distance through the gap in the ridge.  Honourable mention to my local castle Arundel which is also pretty damn cool and in really good condition as it’s still partially occupied.

Been thinking about these and my original Top 5 isn’t really fair as there are so many great castles. St Mawes, Deal, Walmer, Corfe, Beeston, Peveril, Harlech, and so on. It isn’t just the building it is the location, history, childhood memories etc…

Blarney is still a 3/10 though. Take away the stone and it would be empty.

+1 on Stirling castle.

Where it is, its history – just great.

The whole “castle on the hill overlooking the town” is a great look. Nottingham would have been great before the rebuild, closest I have been to living under a castle. My favourites are just the local ones where I have lived, so Derry walls, Moutsandel fort on the Bann, Conisborough here in Doncaster and Dinas Bran at Llangollen.

Fougeres in France for a spectacular foreign place to wander around on holiday.

Those Stirling Castle photographs look like Photoshopped nonsense to me.

Those Stirling Castle photographs look like Photoshopped nonsense to me.

Top photo is foreshortened but it’s a typical photo taken from the Bannockburn bypass.

The Great Hall is very cool – the roof is basically an upturned boat with not a single nail used.

Dunnottar. It’s somewhat local and was used as background image in Windows 7

Plenty of great castles noted above, but, being south Wales, we have tonnes of them around here. I can ride past two on my commute home tonight, and, if I wanted a longer ride, could add the ruins of another 4 or 5 on Gower that I can think of off the top of my head.

I will suggest an oddity that I have a soft spot for – Penlle’r Castell.

http://www.ecastles.co.uk/penller.html

Nobody actually knows what it was, but probably the northernmost fortification of the Lordship of Gower. To get there on a bike you have some long, nasty climbing across barren hills, then a short grassy track over the moor, and then you find these holes in the ground. It’s a random place, but has fantastic view north – the Amman valley below, windfarms to the left, and the last time I was there a massive black storm approaching from the right. Darkness in the east, the sunsetting in the west – it looked very dramatic. It would be a good bikepacking spot,  I’ve decided.

Those Stirling Castle photographs look like Photoshopped nonsense to me.

Come up on a sunny winters afternoon and see for yourself, or a misty morning on the carse viewed from Kier direction….

There’s some clever lens foreshortening, but I’ve similar shots of the area with no Photoshop…

Not a single vote for Caernarfon?!

Its brilliant!!

my favourites are Corfe Castle a childhood favourite but learnt a couple of years ago when I was in the area again that it’s ruined state is not due to siege but parliamentarians “slighting” it after they had captured it, yes it’s a slighted castle

Dunnotter Castle love it’s position and the Tantallon castle a lovely curtain wall castle

No mention of Kisimul Castle in Castlebay on the isle of Barra?

Rob

Nathan Fillion.

and Howard, obvs.

Far too much Photoshop going on there, the castles look great without all that sharpening, vignette and clone stamp. All we need is a piper in the distance and some fake t–ts and and a crappy Runrig song in the background

Wallace monument is amazing piece of work for anyone who hasn’t been

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