{"id":37126,"date":"2024-05-28T14:26:28","date_gmt":"2024-05-28T12:26:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/a0fcc0c8-a705-4120-9d22-efca3281b17e"},"modified":"2024-05-28T15:26:40","modified_gmt":"2024-05-28T13:26:40","slug":"the-oldest-castles-in-britain-explore-britains-ancient-fortifications","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbccountryfile\/rss_feed\/the-oldest-castles-in-britain-explore-britains-ancient-fortifications\/","title":{"rendered":"The oldest castles in Britain: Explore Britain’s ancient fortifications"},"content":{"rendered":"

From Roman ruins to medieval strongholds, this list will transport you back centuries. <\/p>

By <\/p>

Published: Tuesday, 28 May 2024 at 12:26 PM<\/p>

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By 1066, Britain was littered with forts, the very first of which had been built by Iron Age inhabitants. <\/p>

However, it was the Normans, with their revolutionary \u2018motte and bailey\u2019 design \u2013 a hand-built mound with a wooden fort on top and a high high fence all around \u2013 who ushered in the Age of the Castle in the parts of Britain they conquered. <\/p>

The Normans threw up hundreds of such castles in the first 20 years of their reign. Although the vast majority have disappeared completely from the landscape, the more important castles were improved over the centuries, leaving us with some of our most dramatic and impressive examples of medieval architecture, even if little or none of their original Norman roots remain.<\/p>

Here then are nine of the oldest surviving castles that had their origins in the very earliest days of the Normans plus, as a bonus, Scotland\u2019s oldest known castle:<\/p>

Chepstow Castle<\/h2>
Beautiful Chepstow Castle – the oldest surviving post-Roman stone fortification in Britain. Credit: Getty<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Britain\u2019s oldest surviving stone fortification after the Roman era, Chepstow is also one of the very first castles built in Wales (albeit initially with timber). It was the work of Earl William fitz Osbern, one of William I\u2019s closest friends, who chose to site it on a dramatic limestone cliff above the Wye in 1067.<\/p>

Over the centuries, it was improved, adapted and enlarged \u2013 each phase in its life reflecting the evolution of the arsenal of weapons available to those who might attack it. Having seen service in the English Civil War (when it fell to the Roundheads) it was turned into a prison before being abandoned, becoming a star attraction in the early days of tourism.<\/p>

Today it provides a fascinating insight into the development of British castles from their earliest incarnations to their last hurrahs.<\/p>

Useful information<\/h3>