Best Castle in Shropshire, England - Map and Reviews

The castle is situated in the small village of Stokesay, 7 miles from Ludlow in the Marches; the border area between England and Wales. Stokesay Castle is considered to be the best preserved and finest fortified medieval manor house in England. The site contains the castle with its rare medieval wall paintings, a church and a half timbered gatehouse all set in cottage gardens. The castle's two towers are joined by the Great Banqueting Hall with its huge fireplace and roof timbers made from whole trees. The north tower has the original medieval tiled floor and wall paintings as well as housing the 'solar' or private apartments on the upper floor. The south tower; the part of the house which most resembles a castle, is self contained. Facilities Stokesay Castle is open to the public daily between April and September 10am to 5pm, Wednesday to Sunday during October and March and from Thursday to Sunday from November to February. Visitors can take an audio tour of the site which brings to life the castle during the medieval times as well as visit the church and cottage style gardens. The tearoom and gift shop are also open daily in the main season. At the time of the Norman conquest the manor house on the site was granted to the Lucy family and it wasn't until 1281 when it was purchased by Lawrence of Ludlow; the areas richest wool merchant, that the main structure was constructed over a period of ten years. Edward I gave a license to crenellate, and during the 16th century the Elizabethan half timbered gatehouse was added, the castle was then developed throughout he next ten generations of the of Laurence's descendents. During the reign of Charles I and at the beginning of the Civil War, the castle was owned by the Craven family and it was used as a support base for the Kings troops who were stationed at nearby Ludlow Castle. The castle was surrendered to the parliamentarians without substantial damage following a short siege. By 1706 the castle had been abandoned and for the following 150 years was only used by local farmers as storage. It wasn't until 1850 when the Victorians became interested in gothic architecture that the castle became of interest again. In 1869 ownership passed to John Darby Allcroft who set about restoring and maintaining the castle, on the death of Lady Magnus Allcroft in 1992 the estate passed to English Heritage.

Ballan Moor Motte is a medieval earthwork monument located in Worcestershire, England, representing one of the many Norman-period motte-and-bailey castle sites scattered across the Welsh Marches and the West Midlands. The coordinates place it in a rural agricultural area to the west of the county, in a landscape that bears the quiet imprint of centuries of human occupation. Motte-and-bailey constructions were the characteristic method by which Norman lords rapidly established military and administrative control over newly conquered or contested territories following the events of 1066, and this site belongs to that tradition of landscape power. Although it is not among the most famous or well-preserved examples in England, its very existence as a recognisable earthwork feature in the rural countryside makes it a tangible link to the period of Norman consolidation in the region, and a point of genuine interest for those fascinated by early medieval military architecture and landscape history. The motte itself would have begun as a raised mound of earth, constructed either from scratch or by making use of natural topographic advantages, upon which a wooden tower or fortified structure would originally have stood. The bailey, a lower enclosed courtyard area typically adjoining the motte, would have provided space for domestic and military functions. In the Welsh Marches region generally, such structures were built with strategic intent, as the area represented contested territory between English lords and Welsh princes throughout the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Norman lords planted these earthwork castles across the landscape as instruments of control, and many were only occupied for relatively brief periods before being abandoned in favour of more permanent stone constructions elsewhere, which may well account for why sites like Ballan Moor Motte survive primarily as earthworks rather than as standing masonry ruins. The physical character of the site at present would be consistent with other surviving motte earthworks in this part of England: a raised mound, likely grassed over and partly obscured by vegetation, rising above the level of the surrounding land. Such sites often carry a particular quality of stillness, and the mound itself tends to feel both surprisingly substantial underfoot and strangely isolated from the ordinary rhythms of the fields and hedgerows around it. The sounds of the countryside prevail entirely, with no interpretive infrastructure typically present at such minor scheduled monuments, meaning that a visitor is left alone with the shape of the land itself as the primary text. Sheep or cattle may graze nearby, and the mound may be dotted with thistles or rougher grassland than the surrounding pasture, a subtle botanical signal of disturbed ancient ground. The broader landscape around these coordinates in western Worcestershire is one of gentle undulating pastoral farmland, with hedged fields, scattered woodland and a network of quiet lanes. The area lies not far from the Teme Valley and is within reasonable proximity to the Malvern Hills to the east and the Clee Hills to the north and west. This is a richly historic part of England where Offa's Dyke and numerous other earthworks and ancient routes remind visitors that the land has been shaped and reshaped by human ambition across millennia. The character of the countryside is deeply rural and unhurried, and the sense of depth of history embedded in the fields and hedgerows is palpable to the attentive visitor. In terms of practical visiting information, access to minor scheduled earthwork monuments of this kind in rural England is often via public footpaths or bridleways rather than through any formal visitor infrastructure. There are typically no facilities, no car parks and no interpretive signage at sites of this type. Visitors should consult Ordnance Survey mapping carefully before attempting to visit, and should verify that any approach route follows a legitimate right of way. Appropriate footwear for muddy field paths and an awareness that the monument itself may look understated when encountered are both advisable preparations. The best times to visit are late autumn, winter or early spring when lower vegetation and bare hedgerows allow the earthwork topography to be read most clearly in the landscape, and when the low angle of the sun casts shadows that can dramatically reveal the subtle rises and falls of the ground. It is worth noting that the Historical England Register of Scheduled Monuments and resources such as the Worcestershire Historic Environment Record are the most reliable sources for specific details about this site, including its scheduling status, any known archaeological investigations and the precise extent of protected ground. Canvassing such records often reveals details about find scatters, geophysical surveys or documentary evidence that add depth to what can otherwise seem like a featureless mound of earth. The very ordinariness of such earthworks in the English countryside can be deceptive: each one represents a specific act of human ambition, a moment of political or military decision-making now reduced to a curve of ground, quietly persisting in a Worcestershire field long after the names of those who ordered its construction have been entirely forgotten.

Clun Castle is located in the town of Clun, Shropshire. The remains of the four storey rectangular great keep are still standing on the north side of the motte. The keep was built into the side of the motte with one wall rising from the ditch below the motte. Two baileys can be seen to the east. Other remains that can be seen are part of one wall of what may have been a small square keep on top of the motte. To the south is the site of the gatehouse, and the foundations of a great round tower can be seen to the south-west. Along the west front are the remains of two turrets. The castle is owned by the Duke of Norfolk and is managed by English Heritage. The castle was originally built by Robert Picot de Say between 1090 and 1110 as a Norman motte and bailey castle. It passed through marriage to the Fitz Alan family in 1199. During the second half of the 13th century the castle was rebuilt in stone with a four storey keep and curtain walls. In the 14th century the castle was transformed into a hunting lodge by the Fitz Alan family, who had taken up residence in Arundel Castle. Once Clun was no longer the primary residence of the family it started to fall into disrepair. The castle was in ruins by the time of the English Civil War of 1642. In 1894, the castle was purchased by the Duke of Norfolk, a descendant of the original FitzAlan family.

Ludlow Castle is situated in the centre of the market town of Ludlow, 28 miles south of Shrewsbury overlooking the Corve and Teme rivers. The well maintained rectangular castle ruins consist of an inner and outer bailey surrounded by a moat and curtain wall, a tower and keep. Built of grey stone the tower of the castle's keep is built over 4 floors and from the top visitors have long reaching views over the town and the surrounding countryside. Entry to the castle is via a bridge over the dry moat. The inner bailey contains the remains of residential buildings built in Tudor, Medieval and Norman styles, a chapel and a circular chancel. Facilities The castle has a shop and tearoom within the castle walls, there is also the recently converted Castle House; rooms built into the castles outer curtain wall, where holiday accommodation and civil marriages take place. There are three luxury self catering holiday accommodations within Castle House and the Beacon Room or the Library are where civil wedding ceremonies take place which are licensed for up to 60 guests. The original castle on the site was a much smaller building from the beginning of the 11th century. It was constructed as a border stronghold against the Welsh for Roger de Lacy. In the 14th century it was enlarged into a palace for 'the most powerful man in England' Roger Mortimer and in the 15th century was under the ownership of Richard, Duke of York when it played an important role in the Wars of the Roses. Although in England, the town of Ludlow effectively became the capital of Wales and its seat of Government when Edward IV sent his son Edward, Prince of Wales and his brother the Richard, Duke of York to live in the castle in 1472 The next royal occupants were Prince Arthur and his bride, Catherine of Aragon who lived there for a short time before Arthur's death in 1502. Catherine left Ludlow and became the first wife of Henry VIII; Arthur's brother, and their child, Mary Tudor, heir to the throne, spent the winters in the castle between 1525 and 1528. During the Civil War the castle escaped being slighted and in 1689 was where Lord Herbert of Chirbury founded the Royal Welch Fusiliers. In the following years the castle fell into disrepair until it was purchased in 1811 by the 2nd Earl of Powis whose family still own the castle today. The Arts Every year at the end of June the castle is the main venue for Ludlow Festival, a tradition which started in 1634 with the first performance of Comus by John Milton. The castle's inner bailey is the stage for a outdoor Shakespearean play along with music concerts in the outer bailey which in the past have included Jools Holland and Michael Ball.

Shrewsbury Castle occupies a commanding position on a sandstone hill above a tight loop of the River Severn that encloses the historic town of Shrewsbury on three sides. The river's natural defensive moat and the castle's hilltop position made Shrewsbury one of the most strongly defended border towns in medieval England, an important outpost in the long centuries of conflict between the English crown and the Welsh princes who controlled the territory to the west. The castle was founded by Roger de Montgomery, one of William the Conqueror's most powerful followers, shortly after the conquest of England in 1066. The red sandstone from which it was built is the characteristic building material of the Welsh Marches region, and the colour gives Shrewsbury's medieval buildings a distinctive warm quality quite different from the limestone castles of southern England or the granite of the north. The original motte and bailey construction was gradually replaced with stone buildings over the following centuries. Henry II strengthened the castle substantially, and Edward I used it as a base for his campaigns to subdue Wales in the 1280s. The town was the scene of the Battle of Shrewsbury in 1403, one of the most significant engagements of the medieval period, at which Henry IV defeated and killed Henry Percy (Hotspur) and crushed the rebellion that had threatened to topple his throne. Shakespeare dramatised these events in Henry IV Part One with considerable theatrical licence. The castle was remodelled as a residential house in the late seventeenth century by Sir William Pulteney to designs associated with Thomas Telford, the great civil engineer who spent considerable time in Shrewsbury early in his career. This conversion gave the castle a more domestic character while preserving the historic outer walls and the distinctive Laura's Tower, an eighteenth-century summer house built within the castle grounds. Today the castle houses the Shropshire Regimental Museum, which tells the story of the county's military regiments from the late seventeenth century to the present day. The castle grounds are freely accessible during daylight hours and provide excellent views across the town and the River Severn below.

Bridgnorth Castle is one of the most dramatic and evocative medieval ruins in the English Midlands, perched high above the River Severn on a sandstone cliff in the market town of Bridgnorth, Shropshire. What remains of the castle is famously remarkable not for its extent but for the extraordinary lean of its surviving tower, which tilts at an angle of approximately seventeen degrees from the vertical — more than three times the lean of the Tower of Pisa. This single remaining fragment of the great Norman keep has become the defining image of Bridgnorth, a town already rich in character and history, and it draws visitors who come to marvel at a ruin that seems to defy both physics and time. The castle grounds form a public park known as Castle Walk, offering some of the finest views in Shropshire across the wooded Severn valley. The castle's origins lie in the years immediately following the Norman Conquest. It was founded around 1101 by Robert de Bellême, the powerful and notoriously brutal Earl of Shrewsbury, who chose this commanding sandstone bluff as the site for a new stronghold. His rebellion against King Henry I led to a famous siege of Bridgnorth in 1102, after which the castle was surrendered and became a royal possession. Through the medieval period it served as an important administrative centre and residence for various kings, including Henry II, who spent considerable time here. King Charles I visited the castle during the Civil War, and it is this conflict that accounts for the tower's spectacular lean. Parliamentary forces captured Bridgnorth in 1646 after a brutal siege, during which the town itself was largely burned, and the victorious Parliamentarians ordered the deliberate demolition of the castle. Explosive charges were used to bring the keep down, but rather than collapsing, the masonry sheared and tilted, leaving the extraordinary leaning ruin that still stands today. Standing at the foot of the surviving tower, the sheer scale and strangeness of the tilt is immediately arresting in a way that photographs fail to fully convey. The warm, honey-red sandstone of the keep glows in afternoon light, and the masonry is deeply textured with centuries of weathering, with tufts of valerian and other wildflowers finding purchase in the joints. The tower rises perhaps fifteen metres from its base, and looking up at it from the park below creates a mild but genuine sense of vertigo, the mind struggling to reconcile the mass of ancient stone with its improbable posture. The surrounding Castle Walk is a peaceful garden setting with well-maintained lawns, benches, and mature trees, and the air carries the mingled scents of grass, river water rising from below, and sometimes the wood-smoke or baking from the town. On quiet days one can hear the Severn far beneath, and the bells of St Mary's Church nearby. The setting enhances the experience enormously. Bridgnorth itself is divided into two distinct levels — High Town and Low Town — connected by the famous Bridgnorth Cliff Railway, the oldest and steepest inland funicular railway in England, which has operated since 1892. The castle grounds sit in High Town, close to the handsome Church of St Mary Magdalene designed by Thomas Telford, one of the great engineer's few ecclesiastical works. The town is filled with timber-framed buildings, independent shops, and historic inns, and the High Street has a genuinely unspoiled character that is relatively rare in the Midlands. Low Town, reached by the cliff railway or by winding streets, sits along the riverbank and offers pleasant walks beside the Severn. The Severn Valley Railway, a celebrated heritage steam railway, runs through Bridgnorth and is one of the town's major attractions in its own right, with steam trains operating along a preserved line south towards Kidderminster. Visiting Bridgnorth Castle is uncomplicated and free of charge, as the ruins and Castle Walk are maintained as a public open space by Shropshire Council and are accessible throughout the year during daylight hours. There is no admission fee. The town is served by bus routes and is accessible by car, with several car parks in High Town and Low Town; the nearest major road is the A458. Bridgnorth is approximately twenty miles west of Wolverhampton and twenty miles south of Shrewsbury. The castle grounds are suitable for most visitors including families, though the terrain is grassy and slightly uneven in places, so those with mobility difficulties should be aware of this. The best time to visit is arguably in spring or early summer, when the wildflowers around the old masonry are at their most vivid and the valley views are clear before heavy summer foliage closes in, though the site has a particular melancholy beauty in autumn and winter mists as well. One of the more curious and less widely known details about Bridgnorth Castle concerns the sandstone cliff beneath it, which is honeycombed with cave dwellings that were inhabited well into the eighteenth century and possibly later. These rock-cut homes, carved directly into the soft red sandstone, housed some of the poorest residents of the town for generations, and although they are no longer inhabited, several survive and can be glimpsed from Castle Walk and the cliff paths below. This layering of history — Norman lords above, cave-dwellers below, the whole drama of Civil War destruction frozen in the tilting tower — gives Bridgnorth Castle an unusually rich and textured identity among English ruins. It is the kind of place that rewards a slow visit and a little curiosity, where a single leaning stone tower manages to compress nearly a thousand years of English history into one astonishing, precarious image.

Acton Burnell Castle is located near the village of Acton Burnell, Shropshire, England. The castle is a 13th century fortified manor house - the oldest fortified manor house in England. The building is now in ruins, and all that remains is the outer shell of the manor house and the gable ends of the barn, where parliament once sat. It is a Grade I listed building and now maintained by English Heritage. The more recent Acton Burnell Hall is now a privately owned college. The manor house was built in 1284 by Robert Burnell, Bishop of Bath and Wells. Although the building was cranellated and fortified, it was never a military castle. The building was rectangular with a forty feet tall tower at each corner. It was three storeys high with hall, bedrooms, offices, chapel and kitchen. It is believed that the first Parliament of England where Commons were fully represented was held in 1283 in the great barn next to the manor. The castle was held by the Burnell family and passed to the Lovels of Titchmarsh through marriage. The property was confiscated by Henry VII after the Battle of Stoke Field in 1487 and given to Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk. The castle passed to the Smythe family in the mid 17th century. Acton Burnell Hall was built near to the castle in 1814 by the Smythe family.