Castles UK

pauLAW

pauLAW

pauLAW

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Joined
17 Jan 2011
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Manchester
Good Morning

Can anyone recommend any decent castles to visit in the UK? I fancy a day out visiting an historical place, the closer to Manchester the better but I am willing to travel :)
 
Richmond Castle little bit of a drive but good

Also call at Easby Abbey (you drive past it on the way ) fantastic and free too !
 
61832032eileandonancast.jpg


Eilean Donan
 
Castle Howard. Went on sat and it's just stunning. More of a stately home than a castle, but more impressive than any castle I've ever seen. The scale of it is just immense. I live in Slaithwaite and it took about an hour and a bit to get there, so shouldn't be too bad from Manchester. So worth a visit. You have to go in the house if you go.

one of my shots from the day

IMG_769716x9resized.jpg
 
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Alternatively, drive over to York and have a cruise around. Beautiful place, and York Minster is another stunning edifice on mind bending scale.
 
Eilean Donan, Edinburgh Castle, Stirling Castle

Probably my favourite 3 castles so far. A few ruins around Scotland should probably be mentioned but I don't remember names/places. :-(
 
There's some amazing castles in the South East, but I suppose that's a bit of a drive for you! I was thinking Heaver, Leeds Castle (Kent), Bodiam Castle, Bramber, Arundel Castle...

I think one of my favourite castles I've visited is actually Corfe Castle in Dorset, it's amazing.
 
"A historic"

;)

As mentioned. Eilean Donan, Edinburgh or Stirling are your 3 main ones. But also check out Glamis, Culzean and Craigievar.

All in Scotland though. As far as castles are concerned, Scotland>England.
 
If you fancy a drive to Northumberland you could always check out Alnwick, Berwick and Warkworth.
 
The trouble with finding decent castles in the north of England is the fact that most of them are heavily ruined due to The War of the Roses and the Civil War, as well as the pulling down of unusable castles directly after them.

I second Warwick however, it was fantastic when I went. Skipton Castle is also a decent look around, although smaller. Fantastic condition though.

Lancaster Castle is also a good one, but unfortunately a lot of places are still restricted due to the current process of closing the working prison that was there. I assume once that is done, a lot of places will open up. However, the courts are still used, although I'm sure I was on a guided tour around it once. It's pretty chilling to see the spot where the gibbet was, and to read about the Pendle Witch trials and all that jazz.
 
If you do Warwick, pop over and see Kenilworth as well, once one of the most powerful castles in the Kingdom, yes it's been Cromwelled like most of the great ones but you can still get a sense of it's majesty and it isn't full of the Madam Tussauds crap that you overpay for at Warwick :p
 
For the north of England Alnwick is great for the kids but I didn't enjoy it. Raby is quite nice though.
 
Devrij said:
Castle Howard. Went on sat and it's just stunning. More of a stately home than a castle, but more impressive than any castle I've ever seen. The scale of it is just immense. I live in Slaithwaite and it took about an hour and a bit to get there, so shouldn't be too bad from Manchester. So worth a visit. You have to go in the house if you go.
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Castle Howard is fantastic and the area around it in North Yorkshire is amazing as well. Don't know about many castles but there are lots of great houses in the North which give me more of a sense of history than most castles do. Harewood and Chatsworth house are possibly two of the best.
 
kiwi said:
Slight hi-jack, any recommendations for Sussex way?
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PureAppleJuice said:
There's some amazing castles in the South East, but I suppose that's a bit of a drive for you! I was thinking Heaver, Leeds Castle (Kent), Bodiam Castle, Bramber, Arundel Castle...

I think one of my favourite castles I've visited is actually Corfe Castle in Dorset, it's amazing.
Click to expand...

Battle Abbey might be a good shout too. It's kind of castley.

Dover Castle too perhaps.

Edit: Oh, and Herstmonceux Castle
 
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