Here is an alternative angle to my previous shot of the main castle building at Stokesay, this time showing the Tudor gatehouse on the left.

Stokesay Castle is a few miles north of Ludlow in Shropshire. The fortified manor house was built in the late 13th century by Laurence of Ludlow, then the leading wool merchant in England, who intended it to form a secure residence and generate income as a commercial estate.

Architecturally, Stokesay Castle is "one of the best-preserved medieval fortified manor houses in England", according to historian Henry Summerson. The castle comprises a walled, moated enclosure, with an entrance way through a 17th-century timber and plaster gatehouse. Inside, the courtyard faces a stone hall and solar block, protected by two stone towers. The hall features a 13th-century wooden-beamed ceiling, and 17th-century carved figures ornament the gatehouse and the solar. The castle was never intended to be a serious military fortification, but its style was intended to echo the much larger castles being built by Edward I in North Wales. The castle has changed very little since the 13th century, and is a rare surviving example of a near complete set of medieval buildings.

Tags:   Shrophire Stokesay Castle fortified manor houses castles 13th century architecture medieval buildings

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Dunbar Castle is thought to date from the 14th century. It is the remnants of one of the strongest fortresses in Scotland, and withstood a number of sieges. The castle was slighted (deliberately ruined) in 1568 but the town flourished as an agricultural centre and fishing port despite tempestuous times in the 17th and early 18th centuries.

Dunbar is on southeast coast of Scotland, approximately 28 miles east of Edinburgh and 28 miles from the English border near Berwick-upon-Tweed.

Tags:   Scotland East Lothian Dunbar Dunbar Castle castle ruins

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The Great Hall at Edinburgh Castle was built by King James IV of Scotland in 1512. He had married Margaret Tudor, daughter of King Henry VII of England in 1503. The carved corbels of the hall include representations of the Scottish thistle and the English rose. Elsewhere in the Great Hall the large windows show the influence of French architecture, while the open hammerbeam roof gives a nod to English royal architecture.

Source: Edinburgh Castle - Official Souvenir Guide (Historic Scotland).

Tags:   Scotland Edinburgh Castle Edinburgh The Great Hall, Edinburgh Castle 16th century architecture

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This view from the ramparts of Edinburgh Castle looks across the city to the Firth of Forth beyond. In the foreground is Princes Street Gardens with the world-famous Princes Street just behind the gardens and running left to right. The 200-feet high Scott Memorial can be seen just to the right of centre. This was taken with Judy's i-Phone.

Tags:   Scotland Edinburgh Edinburgh Castle cityscapes Princes Street Gardens

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Edinburgh Castle is quite unlike any other castle that I have visited, with buildings seemingly scattered at random over the top of the extinct volcanic plug on which it is situated, and from which it dominates the skyline of the city.

Archaeologists have established human occupation of the rock since at least the Iron Age (2nd century AD), although the nature of the early settlement is unclear. There has been a royal castle on the rock since at least the reign of David I in the 12th century, and the site continued to be a royal residence until 1633. From the 15th century the castle's residential role declined, and by the 17th century it was principally used as military barracks with a large garrison.

This shot was taken on an i-Phone and finished in Photoshop and Aviary.

Tags:   Scotland Edinburgh Castle Edinburgh castles castle interiors

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