Castles & abbeys

58 places across Britain and Ireland

• Battle AbbeyBattle, East Sussex · Built on the very spot where King Harold fell at Hastings.
• Beaumaris CastleBeaumaris, Anglesey · The 'most perfect castle' in Britain, which was never finished.
• Blarney CastleBlarney, County Cork · Kiss the stone and gain the gift of the gab.
• Bodiam CastleNear Robertsbridge, East Sussex · A storybook castle rising out of its own moat.
• Bury St Edmunds AbbeyBury St Edmunds, Suffolk · Where the barons swore the oath that led to Magna Carta.
• Caerlaverock CastleNear Dumfries · A triangular moated castle besieged by Edward I.
• Caernarfon CastleCaernarfon, Gwynedd · Where the first English Prince of Wales was born, and where princes are invested.
• Caerphilly CastleCaerphilly · A vast water castle whose tower leans more than Pisa's.
• Carreg Cennen CastleNear Llandeilo, Carmarthenshire · A clifftop castle with a cave passage, smashed by 500 men with crowbars.
• Carrickfergus CastleCarrickfergus, County Antrim · A Norman castle besieged by kings, Scots and the French.
• Castell Dinas BrânLlangollen, Denbighshire · A ruined hilltop castle said to hide the Holy Grail.
• Chepstow CastleChepstow, Monmouthshire · The oldest stone castle in Britain, with the oldest castle doors in Europe.
• Cleeve AbbeyWashford, Somerset · The best-preserved monks' quarters in England, with medieval paintings still on the walls.
• ClonmacnoiseCounty Offaly · A great monastic city on the Shannon, raided again and again.
• Conwy CastleConwy · Edward I's mighty fortress, taken by Welsh rebels on a Good Friday.
• Corfe CastleIsle of Purbeck, Dorset · Where a boy king was murdered, and a brave lady held off Parliament's army.
• Dolbadarn CastleLlanberis, Gwynedd · A lonely tower where a Welsh prince imprisoned his own brother for twenty years.
• Dunluce CastleNear Bushmills, County Antrim · A clifftop castle whose kitchen, legend says, fell into the sea.
• Dunnottar CastleNear Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire · Where Scotland's crown jewels were smuggled past Cromwell's army.
• Dunstanburgh CastleNear Craster, Northumberland · A rebel earl's castle, left in ruins after the Wars of the Roses.
• Elgin CathedralElgin, Moray · The 'Lantern of the North', burned by the Wolf of Badenoch.
• Farleigh Hungerford CastleNear Trowbridge, Somerset · A lady who burned her husband in the kitchen oven, and a lord who locked his wife in a tower.
• Fountains AbbeyNear Ripon, North Yorkshire · The largest monastic ruins in Britain.
• Glastonbury AbbeyGlastonbury, Somerset · King Arthur's 'grave', and an abbot hanged on the Tor.
• GlendaloughWicklow Mountains · St Kevin's monastic city in a valley of two lakes.
• Goodrich CastleNear Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire · Smashed by 'Roaring Meg', a giant mortar that still sits in the castle.
• Harlech CastleHarlech, Gwynedd · The siege that gave us the song 'Men of Harlech'.
• Iona AbbeyIsle of Iona, Argyll · St Columba's island, where Vikings killed 68 monks on a white sand beach.
• Jedburgh AbbeyJedburgh, Scottish Borders · A border abbey destroyed in Henry VIII's 'Rough Wooing'.
• Kenilworth CastleKenilworth, Warwickshire · The longest siege in English medieval history, and Elizabeth I's party palace.
• Kidwelly CastleKidwelly, Carmarthenshire · Where Princess Gwenllian led a Welsh army into battle and died.
• Kylemore AbbeyConnemara, County Galway · A castle built for love, later home to Benedictine nuns.
• Lindisfarne PrioryHoly Island, Northumberland · The holy island where the Viking Age began.
• Malmesbury AbbeyMalmesbury, Wiltshire · The burial place of England's first king, and the monk who tried to fly.
• Melrose AbbeyMelrose, Scottish Borders · Where Robert the Bruce's heart lies buried.
• Middleham CastleMiddleham, North Yorkshire · The childhood home of Richard III.
• Muchelney AbbeyNear Langport, Somerset · An abbey on an island in the Somerset Levels, cut off when the floods come.
• Netley AbbeyNetley, Hampshire · A Gothic ruin that inspired novelists, haunted by a treasure-guarding monk.
• Nunney CastleNunney, near Frome, Somerset · A French-style moated castle, holed by cannon in the Civil War.
• Old SarumNear Salisbury, Wiltshire · A city that packed up and moved, leaving its castle and cathedral behind.
• Old Wardour CastleNear Tisbury, Wiltshire · A brave lady's last stand, then blown up by her own son.
• Pembroke CastlePembroke, Pembrokeshire · Birthplace of Henry VII, with a great cave beneath it.
• Pevensey CastlePevensey, East Sussex · Where William the Conqueror landed in 1066, inside a Roman fort.
• Pontefract CastlePontefract, West Yorkshire · Where Richard II died, and a castle the townspeople asked to be destroyed.
• Raglan CastleRaglan, Monmouthshire · One of the last castles to hold out for the king in the Civil War.
• Reading AbbeyReading, Berkshire · Henry I's royal abbey, whose last abbot was hanged at its gates.
• Restormel CastleNear Lostwithiel, Cornwall · A perfectly round castle, taken by the king's army in the Civil War.
• Rievaulx AbbeyNear Helmsley, North Yorkshire · Once home to hundreds of monks, now towering ruins in a silent valley.
• Rochester CastleRochester, Kent · King John brought down a tower using the fat of forty pigs.
• Rock of CashelCashel, County Tipperary · The seat of Irish kings, stormed by Cromwellian troops in 1647.
• Shaftesbury AbbeyShaftesbury, Dorset · King Alfred's abbey, once home to the bones of a murdered boy king.
• Sherborne Old CastleSherborne, Dorset · Sir Walter Raleigh's castle, which Cromwell called 'malicious and mischievous'.
• Strata Florida AbbeyPontrhydfendigaid, Ceredigion · The 'Westminster Abbey of Wales', and the legend of a Holy Grail.
• Tantallon CastleNear North Berwick, East Lothian · A great red wall on the cliffs, pounded by Cromwell's guns.
• Tintern AbbeyWye Valley, Monmouthshire · The roofless abbey that inspired Wordsworth and Turner.
• Trim CastleTrim, County Meath · The largest Norman castle in Ireland, and a film set for Braveheart.
• Urquhart CastleLoch Ness, Highlands · A ruined fortress on Loch Ness, and a favourite spot for Nessie hunters.
• Whitby AbbeyWhitby, North Yorkshire · The clifftop ruin that inspired Dracula, and was shelled by German warships.