Castles & Historic Attractions
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England’s second-largest inhabited castle, home to the same family for over 700 years, a genuine Wars of the Roses battleground, and — for a certain generation — the unmistakable exterior of Hogwarts itself.
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A double-moated Tudor manor in the Kent countryside, Hever Castle was Anne Boleyn’s childhood home before Henry VIII came courting — and, a few centuries and one Astor fortune later, gained a water maze, a triathlon course and a genuinely excellent set of gardens along the way.
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Known for centuries as the “Key to England,” Dover Castle has repelled medieval sieges, sheltered a Roman lighthouse, and directed the Dunkirk evacuation from tunnels cut deep into its white cliffs — all a short walk from the ferry port, not the Borough pub of the same name.
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Set across two islands on a Kentish lake, Leeds Castle has sheltered six medieval queens, hosted Henry VIII and Winston Churchill alike, and today pairs 900 years of genuine history with treetop adventure courses and a nine-hole golf course. It has never been anywhere near Yorkshire.
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A thousand years of history turned into Britain’s most action-packed castle day out — jousting knights, the world’s largest working trebuchet, and a genuinely daunting dungeon, all inside walls first raised by William the Conqueror.
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Fourteenth-century moated perfection in the Sussex countryside, complete with a working steam railway stop of its own — here’s the full history and everything you need to plan a visit to Bodiam Castle.
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One of England’s oldest surviving brick buildings, built for Henry VI’s treasurer, reduced to a romantic ruin, rebuilt in the 20th century, and now a Canadian university’s castle campus — here’s the deep history and everything you need to actually plan a visit.
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The country home of the Bishops of London for nearly 1,300 years, with the longest domestic moat in England and London’s second-oldest botanic garden — here’s the deep history and everything you need to actually plan a visit, entirely free.
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A neo-Palladian villa built to showcase one earl’s Grand Tour art collection, and the birthplace of the English landscape garden — here’s the deep history and everything you need to actually plan a visit, Beatles filming locations included.
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The castle where the Tudor dynasty began, and the only major fortress in Wales still run by the family that saved it from ruin.