Castle Directory
Browse the world’s castles, fortresses, and historic strongholds.
Filter by country, region, type, period, or UNESCO status.
Dolbadarn Castle
Dolbadarn Castle, a roofless round tower and the footings of its enclosure on a ridge between two lakes in north Wales, is the subject of Turner’s Royal Academy Diploma Work. Cadw names Llywelyn ap Iorwerth...
Caerphilly Castle
Begun in 1268 by Gilbert de Clare against Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, Caerphilly Castle in south Wales is a concentric castle in artificial lakes, much of it rebuilt in 1928-39, its leaning tower left unrestored.
Conwy Castle
Begun by Edward I in 1283 as one work with its walled town, Conwy Castle in north Wales is a roofless royal castle repaired in plain sight, and part of the World Heritage Site “Castles...
Tower of London
The Tower of London, an unoccupied royal palace still garrisoned and locked every night: the White Tower begun in the 1070s, the walls and moat of Henry III and Edward I, the Crown Jewels, the...
Kenilworth Castle
Kenilworth Castle: a great tower probably of the 1120s, a 172-day siege in 1266, Elizabeth I’s 1575 visit and the 1649 order to make it untenable. What survives, the re-created garden and how to visit.
Bodiam Castle
From across its moat Bodiam Castle looks complete; inside, it is a shell. Licensed in 1385 to Sir Edward Dallingridge, the East Sussex castle has divided historians for decades: built to fight or impress?
Framlingham Castle
Framlingham’s curtain wall stands nearly complete, thirteen towers around an irregular oval, and the courtyard behind it is grass. Inside the walls are the former workhouse buildings, the Poor House and the Red House, built...
Dover Castle
A Roman lighthouse, an Anglo-Saxon church and Henry II’s Great Tower stand on one chalk headland above the Channel, over tunnels cut and recut from the thirteenth century to the twentieth. What survives of each,...
Windsor Castle
Windsor Castle, founded in the 1070s, is still a working royal palace. This guide traces what that has done to the building: what Henry II, Edward III, Charles II and Wyatville each left standing, what...
Château de Gisors
A motte raised for William Rufus in 1096-97, an octagonal great tower on its summit whose date is still disputed, and a circular great tower built after Philip Augustus took the castle in 1193: Gisors...
Château de Falaise
William the Conqueror was born at Falaise, and almost nothing standing on the rock is his. The great tower was raised for his youngest son about 1123, the round tower for the French king who...
Château de Caen
The Château de Caen is one of the few great fortresses of northern France you can walk into without paying anything. William, Duke of Normandy, founded it about 1060, and almost everything a visitor walks...