Nottingham Castle, Nottingham (must see)

Sat atop a natural rocky promontory known as "Castle Rock", 130 feet (40 m) above the city, the Nottingham Castle is a strategic fortress that once occupied a commanding position on a major road leading to the north of England.

The first wooden, motte-and-bailey fort on this site was built in 1068 by the invading Normans on the orders of William the Conqueror. During the reign of King Henry II, the wooden structure was replaced by a far more defensible stone castle. The construction was further added to throughout the Middle Ages, and emerged as an important royal stronghold and occasional residence used by Medieval kings as a stopping point on their journeys. The elaborate cave system underneath the citadel stood witness to a number of accounts of royal and political intrigue.

In the absence of King Richard I ("the Lionheart"), who was away on the Third Crusade to the Holy Land, the Castle was taken over by his treacherous brother, Prince John, portrayed in the Robin Hood story as the usurper king; among his supporters was the Sheriff of Nottingham. The legend has the Castle as the scene of a final showdown between the heroic outlaw and the evil Sheriff.

By 1600, the Castle had fallen into decline, rendered militarily obsolete by the arrival of artillery. It was already in a semi-ruined state, following a number of skirmishes on the site, when the English Civil War broke out. All except for its medieval foundations was practically razed in 1651, at the end of the War.

In the 1670s William Cavendish, Duke of Newcastle, built on Castle Rock a Stuart Restoration-era "Ducal Mansion". This ducal palace was torched during the Reform Act riots of 1831 and left as a ruin for another 40 years. It was renovated in the 1870s to house an art gallery and Nottingham Castle Museum, still in use. Of the original castle have survived only the gatehouse and parts of the ramparts, pointed arches and a subterranean tunnel, called "Mortimer's Hole", associated with Robin Hood.

The Castle underwent extensive renovation from 2018 to 2021 with a new visitor center installed, new exhibitions and galleries added, complete with interactive displays, a children's adventure section based on Robin Hood, and a Nottingham Lace exhibit. The Castle also holds the regimental museum of the Sherwood Foresters and has Robin Hood iconography throughout its gardens.