Ireland has more than 30,000 castles and castle ruins known of (too many to count) whereas Scotland has just over 2,000.
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Scottish castles represent the country's long and colourful history. Scotland is home to over 1500 castles but it's thought there may have been as many as 3000 castles! Let's take a closer look at some historic Scottish castles, who lived in them, and how they were built!
This is a little known fact; Wales has more castles per square mile than any other country in Europe. Wales's history has left a landscape scattered with Iron Age hill forts, Roman ruins and castles from Medieval Welsh princes and English kings.
Due to Ireland being a place that was constantly war torn for centuries castles were constantly built, destroyed and then rebuilt. Ireland is also slightly less mountainous than Scotland so there was more land suitable for castle building.
This is a little known fact; Wales has more castles per square mile than any other country in Europe. Wales' history has left a landscape scattered with Iron Age hill forts, Roman ruins and castles from Medieval Welsh princes and English kings.
History of the Irish CastleInstead they were fortified homes for chieftains, or Anglo Norman settlers and were designed primarily for defence. Many of these castles are medieval in origin, dating from the 11th to the 15th century.
The aftermath of the Williamite war saw a fresh influx of thousands of Scots in the north of Ireland, encouraged by harvest crises in their native land. About 1700 it was noted that due to a fresh wave of migration from Scotland, 'the dissenters measure mightily in the north'.