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Spent the day at Charles Fort, Kinsale, which has seriously messed with my Top 5 Castles.
1. Pendennis
2. Charles Fort
3. Beaumaris
4. Dartmouth
5. Middleham
Dover just got knocked off the list.
Yours?
Findlater
Bodiam. Romantic and beautiful.
Guildford, because no one knows guildford has a castle and assume that it’s a town like basingstoke or swindon.
Findlater
Not Castle Remsof? 😉
Harlech is pretty impressive.
But in reality, Dunstanburgh in winter:
Eden
Maine XXXX
Takeshi's castle.
harlich and Conway !!
Given I lived in it for three years* I have to say Durham Castle
https://www.universityrooms.com/en-GB/city/durham/college/durhamcastle#PhotosPopup
* not really, I only had meals and social life in it for two, I only actually got to live in it for one (on Hall stairs, right next to the Great Hall). There's a Hall stairs room in the link above, mine didn't overlook the courtyard, rather the other way over the River Wear and Framwellgate Bridge.... hopefully this link works
https://maps.app.goo.gl/QgqBmfEgmU3CTRgk8
Torn between Ed Sheeran and Freya Ridings.
Amongst many others .. .. White Castle
https://cadw.gov.wales/visit/places-to-visit/white-castle
on Offas Dyke north of Monmouth. Impressive fortifications.
@andy4d excellent, but Freya takes it!
So many in Scotland but Edinburgh built on the rock and from the West or South looks impenetrable or fxxking hard to get in
Balvaird , Tantallon or Fast castle
You may notice I'm on the East side
Came here to say Hermitage but beaten to it, properly imposing
And then I remembered my visit to Fenestrelle, absolutely mind blowing. Was there after it had closed for the day, just went for a walk. Looked like a posh house at the bottom, then a bit above that, and then some above that, and some more walls and drawbridges and more castle, I kept walking and walking up the hill and there were more and more levels of fortifications to retreat into. I did get in, actually quite easy when the drawbridges are down and there's no one shooting at you.
Kinda liked Caerphily cos it was just over the hill from me at uni.
The tower leans more than the leaning tower of Pisa.
Cardiff Castle and the little folly castle of Castell Coch (just north of Cardiff) were regular haunts during my time at uni too.
Also, it should be a requirement of this thread to post a pic of the castle in question.
Here's Castell Coch, also known as the Fairytale Castle for obvious reasons. There was good MTBing in thewoods around there, really quite steep in places!
Barbara
Königstein
Bastei
Chambord
Bodiam, because it looks like a proper castle and has a most and a trebuchet that was used to actually kill ducks and everything.
Dunrobin
Surprising location.
Also, it should be a requirement of this thread to post a pic of the castle in question.
I've tried, but it's not gone well ...
Mad ludwigs castle in Bavaria
[Img] 
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Oh ffs
+1 Roy
+1 Barbara
Blarney Castle.
Takes a bit of immagination, but fast castle is quite the spot.
Small craggy real castles.
Edinburgh castle is a shite castle. Its a walled barracks. Stirling is a far more castly castle if you want to go crag and tail.
I vote Bodiam, like many other voters here...
Bodiam is pretty cool. [La-De-Dah]Saw a production of A Mid Summer Night's Dream in it one evening last summer [/La-De-Dah]
Blarney tomorrow for us. Will it further mess with my top 5?
Lancaster is quite nice but has a interesting history
Edinburgh castle is a shite castle. Its a walled barracks.
Nottingham Castle is also a shit castle. It's supposed to be all Robin Hood and dastardly sheriff and it's actually a manor house built in the late 1800's - admittedly on the site of the famed Norman castle but not remotely castle-like.
On which note, Carcassonne is stunning. It was "Nottingham Castle" in Robin Hood Prince of Thieves.
Caleveloch
Garlies castke
Beeston
Got kicked out of the pub quiz... they asked what famous castle suffered smoke damage in the 80s.
Turns out Roy wasn't the right answer
St Briavels because I stayed in it on one of my first weekends with the Southern Section CTC.
Blois, a lot learned.
Pau, I visited with in-laws I remember fondly, and I've run through the grounds hundreds of times.
Amboise, junior loved the Da Vinci garden.
Dunstanburgh is great for the walk from Craster
Beaumaris for being the most advanced concentric castle.
Castle Rushen for being almost all intact.
Caerlaverock for being triangular
Love Charles Fort, but Wales smashes it when it comes to castles. I vote Pembroke
On the subject of castles I heard a podcast with the author of this book about historic buildings and the myths surrounding them. Interesting.
https://triskeleheritage.triskelepublishing.com/historic-building-mythbusting-by-james-wright/
Windsor
Bodium
Cary
Mowcop Castle
/Thread
Llanstephan has a lovely setting
It certainly has. I holidayed at Llanstephan a few times with my folks and I loved walking up to the castle and sitting on the remaining wall on the seaward side, it’s just high enough to sit on and have your feet on the grass outside. I used to watch A-10’s doing practice strafing runs on the Pembrey ranges, I could see the smoke from the cannon, then a sound like a sheet of corrugated steel being ripped in half, and on the other side Dylan Thomas’ boat house at Laugharne. I had my first car by that time, a ‘54 split-screen Morris Minor, which I’d drive over to Pendine Sands.
Local - Clitheroe
British - Dunstanburgh
French - Pierrefonds
Just for something s bit different this is Grianan of Aileach (aka Greenan Fort) in Co Donegal. It's my favourite as I could see it from my bedroom window when I was a kid, and we used to mess around on the terraces and climb through the long wall tunnels.
Haha, Mow Cop is ace, was my local castle growing up. Favourite proper castle is also local - Beeston Castle. Loved going there on school trips.
Goodrich.
It's proper castle shaped, looks like the thing you have in your head when you think medieval British castle, and is mostly accessible, so you can have a proper "knights of the round table" experience
Krak De Chevalier
I mean, what's not to like, look at the thing. Even the name is cool.
Edo Castle
The picture is actual just a part of the Edo complex (Fujimi Yagura) which covered acres and acres, and must have been astonishing to behold
Castell Carreg Cennen is really pretty good.
Came to say the same, it gets extra points for having a cave inside where you can walk down to reach an underground spring, very useful under siege. It was also accidentally sold as part of a nearby farm sale and their decendents still own it today.
Chepstow.
Orford.
Pix later 🙂
Can't beat a good hill fort or even a Roman camp. (Caerwent)
Dunnottar Castle on a cloudy misty day, that pic above looks photoshopped to me , maybe not as the occasional sunny day has been known in Stonehaven
Christchurch
Corfe Castle in Dorset. Brings back memories of happy childhood holidays and the odd audax that goes past it.
onehundredthidiotFull Member
Hermitage castle because it’s a proper fortress.
That is impressive!
Edo Castle
The picture is actual just a part of the Edo complex (Fujimi Yagura) which covered acres and acres, and must have been astonishing to behold
Ye-es, but the signs around it all say "this section burned down in 1635 and was rebuilt in 1638. It burned down again in 1642 and was rebuilt in 1643. It burned down again in 1654 and was rebuilt... (etc)" - so it maybe wasn't the best at being an actual castle!
My castle-love comes from primary school history classes, which mainly focused on the early sort (motte and bailey) and then bashed straight into the concentric castles mainly found in Wales for suppressing the revolting locals.
So Beaumaris is the daddy. Conwy is a personal favourite just because living in the NW we used to go past it fairly regularly. Caernarfon is pretty good too.
Also shout out to Jaisalmer in Rajasthan, built in the 12th Century in the middle of the desert. Hot as balls, but really pretty cool
@harry_the_spider you need to get yourself on to here https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/holiday-cottages/find-a-holiday-cottage/callies-cottage/
You get a key to the castle and get to be there overnight, Pendennis is good, but the best over night stay is carrisbrooke on the Isle of Wight https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/holiday-cottages/find-a-holiday-cottage/bowling-green-apartment/ It was ace riding my bike round the castle after hours!
Corfe Castle in Dorset.
There used to be a round of the SAMS (Southern Area Mountain Bike Series) there. Spectacular course with an absolute ripper of a descent off the rolling grassy hill. Terrifyingly fast, the hill dropped away at about the same rate as the bike would drop after getting air off the rollers, the result being you'd be off the ground for what felt like ages.
Castle Coefinn, Lismore
https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/6895425
I am told that the Game of Thrones location scouts were interested but the locals were not having it.
Nottingham Castle is also a shit castle. It’s supposed to be all Robin Hood and dastardly sheriff and it’s actually a manor house built in the late 1800’s – admittedly on the site of the famed Norman castle but not remotely castle-like.
On which subject - Lindisfarne - castle on the outside, Roaring Twenties party pad on the inside.
Pretentious selection - Helsingor (Elsinore) Castle in DK-land.
Well, Blarney is a solid 3/10. They really have milked a "visitor experience" out of it.
Rochester is way more spectacular.
New
Upon Tyne or Under Lyme?
Barnard, for me
The North East of Scotland has some great castles, and some mansions with turrets on top too. I was going to suggest Dunottar but someone got there first.
I'm not sure I'd call it a favourite but I stayed near Skenfrith Castle a couple of years ago and I had a great time wandering around it on a sunny afternoon.
