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- Peckforton Castle, Cheshire. This vast, grand castle is a popular celebrity wedding venue. Unsurprisingly, it’s extremely luxe and has a spa. Grade I-listed and built in 1876 by a lord, it’s two miles from the ruins of the Medieval Beeston Castle, where legend has it that Richard II hid his treasure.
- Astley Castle, Warwickshire. This sixteenth-century manor house was left a ruin in the 1970s after a fire, then brought back to life with some Riba-award-winning architecture that adds modern design to the original walls.
- Thornbury Castle, Gloucestershire. Want a taste of sixteenth-century life? Head to Thornbury Castle on the edge of the Cotswolds. It’s not only a high-end hotel, it was once owned by Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn (who was his new bride at the time).
- Lisheen Castle, County Tipperary. This eighteenth-century building has a chaotic history. Once a three-storey Irish Palladian country house, it was burned down by the IRA in 1921 during the Irish War of Independence.
Swinton Park, Masham, Ripon, North Yorkshire, HG4 4JH. An exclusive 31 bedroom luxury castle hotel, Swinton Park is a Grade II listed building, dating from the 1600’s. Lavishly furnished, this is a unique opportunity to enjoy a stately home experience in one of the highest rated hotels in Yorkshire. See availability. 17th Century.
Apr 16, 2024 · 16 April 2024. Plenty of boys and girls dream of living in a castle one day. And even into adulthood, the charms of a palace are easy to conjure up, from high ceilings to stained glass windows, romantic turrets to sprawling ballrooms. Plus, the very fact that you can pull up the drawbridge and keep out guests might appeal to some.
- Rebecca Cope
Stay in the oldest inhabited house in Scotland - a fortified mansion in the Scottish Borders. Visited by 27 kings and queens, including Mary Queen of Scots, Traquair House now offers three luxury bedrooms and even has its own brewery! Wildlife spotting on the Sound of Mull - Mingary Castle has four unique suites (sleeping up to ten) and offers ...
- Great Hall
- Bed Chambers and The Solar
- Toilets
- Kitchens
- Pantry and Larder
- Buttery
- Gatehouse
- Chapel
- Storage Rooms
The Great Hall was the main room of a castle, and the largest room – great halls could also be found throughout the medieval period in palaces and manor houses. The great hall had many different functions: it could be used to receive guests and hold ceremonies; it could be used as a dining space, both by the family and household of the castle’s lor...
The private bed chambers of a medieval castle were typically accessed by a small passage at the top end of the great hall – often the bedrooms and living rooms of the lord and lady of the castle, and their close family or honoured guests, would be on the first floor of the structure. Typically, in a medieval castle, servants of the household would ...
An essential in any domestic environment, toilets in medieval castles were known by many names: ‘privy’, ‘draught’, ‘gong’, or perhaps most well-known, ‘garderobe’. The word garderobe later came to mean ‘wardrobe’ in French, but it likely meant ‘cupboard’ in the medieval period, as castle toilets were very small so as to save on space. In a castle,...
Castle kitchens were separate from the great hall and other living quarters, primarily so that the noise and smoke from the kitchen did not reach residential parts of the castle. Cooking was conducted using large open fires, over which food was cooked on spits, as well as ovens. These ovens could be enormous – the castle at Ludgershall supposedly h...
The pantry was a storage space for foods which lasted, such as bread and baked goods, as well as objects such as plates and cutlery. The name derives from the Old French word paneterie, which itself comes from the Latin word pan, meaning ‘bread’. In a castle, the pantry was usually a separate storage room, although some food preparation would somet...
The buttery in a medieval castle was positioned close to the kitchen and the great hall and was the room where alcohol was stored. The name likely derives from the French of Latin word for bottle, or from the word ‘butt’, the casks in which the beer itself was stored. The buttery was presided over by a ‘butler’, who would serve the beer in the grea...
The castle gatehouse was a fortified entrance building set into the curtain walls, constructed around the castle gate. As concentric castles developed and the need for free-standing stone keeps lessened, large gatehouses took over many of the defensive functions the keep had previously fulfilled. They would typically have had one or more portcullis...
Christianity dominated all aspects of life in medieval Europe, and castles were no exception. As they were both military and domestic spaces, castles needed to be able to fulfil religious functions such as ceremonies, from regular masses to burials and feasts. They were, of course, also places for private prayer. Inclusion of a chapel was also impo...
Aside from dedicated storage spaces for food and drink inside the keep, there were also additional rooms around the castle which could be used to hold a variety of things. Vaulted chambers, often underneath castle walls, were known as ‘casemates’ and were safe places to shelter supplies as well as soldiers. Undercrofts were also common in the later...
Life in a castle. Once upon a time castles were full of life, bustle and noise and crowded with lords, knights, servants, soldiers and entertainers. In times of war and siege they were exciting and dangerous places, but they were homes as well as fortresses. Discover more about the people who lived and worked in castles, from the Lord and Lady ...
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Essentially, castles were at the heart of Medieval society. Castles were built in England and Wales after 1066. They cemented a new social system of feudalism in place. Each new castle secured the power of the local lord over his vassals. To serve the lord, most castles would have been places of frenzied domestic activity.
