What happened to British castles?

Many castles slipped into decline as their owners moved into country houses, but others like Kenilworth continued to be updated where a magnificent garden was added next to the great tower. During the English Civil War, long abandoned castles in England and Wales were readied for war.



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Why did they stop building castles? Castles were great defences against the enemy. However, when gunpowder was invented the castles stopped being an effective form of defence. By the end of the 1300s gunpowder was widely in use.

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Which UK castle reigns as the oldest? We delved into our research to discover that Pevensey Castle in east Sussex steals the title as the oldest castle in the UK. Built in the year 280CE, it is a medieval castle and former Roman Saxon Shore fort.

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The Tower of London is the most secure castle in the UK. This mediaeval fortress has served as a royal palace, prison, execution ground, and military stronghold.

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Windsor Castle is the oldest and largest inhabited castle in the world and has been the family home of British kings and queens for almost 1,000 years. It is an official residence of Her Majesty The Queen and is still very much a working royal palace today, home to around 150 people.

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Belgium houses the majority of abandoned mansions, hotels and castles, with a total of 300 known abandoned buildings of this nature.

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Many UK castles, like Scarborough above, were deliberately ruined during the civil war to prevent them from ever being used again to challenge parliament. Re-building them was forbidden for the same reason.

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Recounting tales from 1,000 years of British history, Secrets of Great British Castles captures the might and majesty of Edinburgh, Cardiff, York, Lancaster, Leeds and Arundel castles and brings to life the heroic and notorious characters who once walked their corridors.

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Germany. The country with the most castles is Germany! It's thought that Germany has around 25,000 castles within its borders.

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Bodiam Castle, among the most famous abandoned castles in England, was built in 1385 by one of King Richard II's knights, who survived the age of the Black Death and was a contemporary of Chaucer. The castle was constructed for protection in battle, with thick armored walls, a portcullis and even a moat.

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And indeed, the White Heron Castle, as it is sometimes called for its wing-like roofs and white walls, still stands today with its medieval foundations still wholly intact. It has survived the strife of the Muromachi period, the bombing of Himeji during World War II, and even catastrophic earthquakes.

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