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        The classic castle, like great art, is difficult to define. Ask anyone to describe his or her idealized castle and you may get the same answer you commonly hear for great art: "I know what I like, and I’ll know it when I see it."-

        Almost everyone who travels to Britain wants to visit at least one castle. And Britain, fortunately, is chock a bloc with castles, fortresses, and palaces of all ages, styles, and sizes. There are large, royal, venerable fortresses with imposing histories and lavish interiors, like Windsor in England and Edinburgh in Scotland. There are romantic, fairytale castles, and private family castles — like Leeds Castle in Kent, or the Queen’s Balmoral Castle and Andrew Carnegie’s Skibo Castle in Scotland. There are great tottering fortresses that played important rolls in the conquest of Britain like the Norman castles dotting England (Dover Castle and the Tower of London are famous examples), King Edward I’s foreboding chain of castles (Harlech, Caernarfon, Beaumaris, and Conwy), stretching around the northwest coast of Wales, and the superb Stirling Castle in Scotland.

Bamburgh Castle, Northumberland, England. Photo © Home At First