How many castles still stand in the U.K.?

The headline answer is "six to seven hundred", but the question is harder to answer than you might imagine. It depends on how you count partially ruined castles. read more

The oldest castles are mostly earthworks, and several thousand years old, places like Maiden Castle (see here English Heritage) - no palisades surviving, and no stonework at all, but it's still there, and still very firmly classed as a castle. read more

Castles have played an important military, economic and social role in Great Britain and Ireland since their introduction following the Norman invasion of England in 1066. Although a small number of castles had been built in England in the 1050s, the Normans began to build motte and bailey and ringworks castles in large numbers to control their newly occupied territories in England and the Welsh Marches. read more