Castles & Historic Attractions
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The Campbells of Glenorchy’s lochside fortress, later a barracks for 200 men, now one of the most photographed ruins in Scotland. Free to walk to, but the famous view isn’t from the castle, and the inside is currently closed.
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Edinburgh’s ‘other castle’: a medieval tower house where Mary Queen of Scots sheltered in 1566, and where, that same winter, her nobles are said to have discussed ridding her of her husband. Quieter, cheaper and far less crowded than the one on the rock.
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A thousand years of history, a ruined gatehouse whose famous 1692 explosion is more disputed than the legend admits, and one of the best-placed views on Loch Ness — here’s how to actually get parked and inside.
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Until 1603, almost every Scottish monarch was crowned, lived in, or died at Stirling Castle — here’s the royal history behind Scotland’s most fought-over fortress, plus current entry prices and how to actually get there.
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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.