Castles Near London: 7 Day Trips Worth Taking

1. Windsor Castle

If you only have time for one castle near London, Windsor is the one we’d suggest. It’s an official residence of King Charles III, it’s the oldest and largest occupied castle in the world, and it’s under an hour from Paddington.

William the Conqueror built the first fortress here in the 11th century, and it has been home to 40 monarchs since. The castle sits on 13 acres, so it’s worth allowing at least half a day.

The State Apartments are the centrepiece. They’re still used to receive heads of state and to hold investitures, and they’re furnished with pieces from the Royal Collection that would be the star exhibit almost anywhere else.

Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House is the thing most people remember afterwards. Built to a precise 1:12 scale, it has running water, working electric lights, and a library of tiny books written specially for it by the leading authors of the day. It’s a complete portrait of an Edwardian house shrunk to the size of a table.

St George’s Chapel is the other essential stop, a glorious piece of Gothic architecture holding the tombs of ten monarchs including Henry VIII and Queen Elizabeth II. Photography isn’t allowed inside. The chapel is closed to visitors on Sundays, when services run throughout the day, though anyone is welcome to attend those.

Two timing points that are easy to get wrong. The castle is closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. And the Changing of the Guard at Windsor takes place on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays at 11am, weather permitting, with nothing on Sundays. That Tuesday overlap is worth reading twice, because you can watch the guard change in the town on a Tuesday but you can’t go inside the castle the same day.

Windsor is one of our top day trips to take by train from London, and we covered the town as well as the castle in Episode #99 of the UK Travel Planning Podcast.

Member of English Heritage? No

Read more – Complete guide to visiting Windsor Castle

2. Dover Castle

Dover is the castle to choose if you’re after history rather than grandeur. It’s known as the Key to England, and it has guarded the shortest crossing to the continent for more than nine centuries. The site itself has been fortified for around 2,000 years, so there’s Roman history here as well as Norman.

It’s the largest castle in England, standing on the cliffs above the Channel, and on a clear day you can see France. That’s only 21 miles away, which is exactly why the castle is there.

William the Conqueror began building shortly after 1066, and Henry II added the Great Tower and the outer walls in the 1180s. Almost every century since has left something behind, and that layering is what makes Dover such a rewarding day out.

The Roman lighthouse in the grounds is one of the oldest standing buildings in Britain. The Great Tower has been furnished as it would have looked for Henry II’s court. And beneath it all run the tunnels, medieval passages extended during the Napoleonic Wars and then turned into an underground command centre during the Second World War, from where the Dunkirk evacuation was directed.

A few practical things. It’s a large site on a clifftop, so there’s a fair amount of walking and a good many stairs, and it can be very windy up there. We’d allow a full day. If you arrive by train or bus, showing your ticket at the gate gets you 20% off admission.

Member of English Heritage? Yes – click here to join

3. Arundel Castle

Arundel sits in West Sussex, 65 miles south of London, and it has been the seat of the Dukes of Norfolk and their ancestors for 850 years. Roger de Montgomery, Earl of Arundel, built the first castle on a manmade hill here in 1068, and the family are still there today.

Most of what you see now is Victorian. The castle was rebuilt as a country house in the late 19th century by owners wealthy enough to make it one of the first in England with electricity and central heating. The round towers, the gothic windows and the views over the South Downs and the River Arun all date from that period.

The gardens were the highlight for us. We visited in autumn, when the colour through the grounds was beautiful, and we were happy to spend our time out there rather than hurrying round the rooms inside. There are formal beds, greenhouses and a working kitchen garden, and if you’re there in late April the tulip festival is the busiest week of the year.

The oldest part of the castle is the motte and keep, a circular fortress on a 100 foot artificial mound and once its strongest point. You can climb the steps to the top for views over the Sussex countryside. Inside the castle there’s an art collection, a display of armour and some personal possessions of Mary Queen of Scots, and on the western side of the grounds the 14th century Fitzalan Chapel is a lovely example of Perpendicular Gothic, usually much quieter than the rest of the site.

One thing worth knowing when you’re planning. Arundel opens from 1 April to 2 November, Tuesday to Sunday, plus bank holiday Mondays and Mondays in August. It’s closed through the winter and closed most Mondays in season, so it’s worth checking the dates before you build a day around it. Tickets are best booked ahead, and the events calendar is worth a look for combat demonstrations and historical talks.

Parking is a short walk from the entrance. If anyone in your party has mobility difficulties, there’s a golf cart to take them up to the gardens.

Member of English Heritage? No

4. Highclere Castle

Highclere Castle will be instantly familiar if you’ve watched Downton Abbey. The tour takes in many of the rooms you’ll recognise from the series, and it’s the closest thing on this list to walking into a television programme.

It’s the home of the Earl and Countess of Carnarvon, and records of the estate go back to 749. The castle you see today was created in 1842 by Sir Charles Barry, who also designed the Houses of Parliament.

There’s a second story here that takes people by surprise if they came only for Downton. The 5th Earl of Carnarvon funded and joined the excavation that uncovered the tomb of Tutankhamun, and the Egyptian Exhibition includes a reproduction of the sarcophagus.

Highclere runs tours and events throughout the year, including the popular Real Lives and Film Sets Guided Tour, alongside its summer public opening. Whichever you’re after, tickets go quickly, so it’s worth booking as far ahead as you can.

Member of English Heritage? No

Read more – Complete guide to visiting Highclere Castle

5. Leeds Castle

First, the thing that catches people out: this is not the Leeds in Yorkshire. Leeds Castle is in Kent, near Maidstone, about an hour south east of London, and it takes its name from a nearby village.

It’s the most rural of the castles in this guide, set on two islands in a lake formed by the River Len. That setting is why it turns up so often on lists of the most beautiful castles in England, and why the approach across the water is the photograph everybody takes.

The Normans built it, it became a royal castle in the 13th century, and Henry VIII remodelled it as a residence for Catherine of Aragon. After that it became a Jacobean country house and later a Georgian mansion, so the interiors reflect all of it rather than any single period. The last private owner, the Hon. Olive, Lady Baillie, left the castle and 500 acres to the nation in 1974.

The maze is what many people come for: over 2,400 yew trees planted into a large square, with an underground grotto at the centre that you leave through rather than turning back. The grounds also take in a children’s play area and a birds of prey collection.

Two things make the ticket better value than it first looks. Entry includes free return visits for a year, which is worth knowing if you’re in the UK for a longer trip. And if you arrive by train or bus rather than driving, there’s 20% off entry.

Leeds is the one castle in this guide we haven’t been to yet. One of our listeners visited on their England trip and talked us through it in Episode #168 of the UK Travel Planning podcast, and the photograph here was taken by John England, who joined us on the podcast to talk about the historic sites in the south east.

Member of English Heritage? No

6. Hever Castle

Hever is in the Kent village of the same name, 30 miles south east of London, and it’s the smallest and most domestic castle in this guide. It began as a 13th century country house, though one with a gatehouse and walled bailey, and grew over the centuries to add the moat, the Great Hall and the towers.

It became the seat of the Boleyn family, and Anne Boleyn grew up here long before she became Henry VIII’s second wife and the mother of Elizabeth I. After her execution in 1536, Henry’s fourth wife Anne of Cleves took possession of Hever and held it until her own death. Two of Henry’s queens, one house.

Thirty seven owners from thirteen families have held it since. In 1903 William Waldorf Astor bought the place and spent five years restoring the interior and laying out the grounds, which is why the 125 acres of lake, gardens and topiary feel considerably grander than the house at their centre.

The approach is the best of it. There’s a double moat, which is rare, then the drawbridge and the vine-covered entrance under a rather intimidating portcullis. Inside there are Tudor artefacts and 700 years of the castle’s history, and staff in period costume who are happy to stop and talk.

Picnics are welcome in the grounds, so this is an easy one to stretch into a full day. Hever opens daily from late March to late October, with shorter hours either side of that and reduced days in November, so it’s worth checking the dates if you’re travelling outside the summer.

If you’re following the Tudors through your trip, Hever pairs naturally with Leeds and with the Tower of London. We covered the Tudor history of the south east in Episode #41 of the UK Travel Planning Podcast.

Member of English Heritage? No

7. Warwick Castle

Warwick is the outlier in this guide on two counts. It’s the furthest from London at around two hours, and it’s run by Merlin Entertainments, the company behind Madame Tussauds and Alton Towers. That shapes the day quite a bit, and it’s better to know before you go than after.

What it means in practice is costumed actors, a birds of prey show called Falconer’s Quest using around 60 birds, archery demonstrations, and a working replica trebuchet launched on scheduled days. If you’re travelling with grandchildren this is comfortably the best day out in this guide. If you’re after quiet rooms and time with the collection, Dover or Arundel will suit you better.

The castle deserves its reputation either way. William the Conqueror ordered it built in 1068 at Warwick, a timber motte and bailey to begin with, rebuilt and refortified in stone during the Hundred Years War.

The 14th century frontage is one of the finest surviving examples of military architecture from its period in England, and it looks exactly the way a castle is supposed to look. Inside, the Great Hall and staterooms have been recreated in detail.

The setting helps too, on a bend of the River Avon with the Warwickshire countryside beyond. Gate prices are considerably higher than booking online, and the events calendar is worth a look for medieval banquets and seasonal evenings.

Warwick combines easily with Stratford-upon-Avon and the Cotswolds if you’d rather make it an overnight trip than a very long day.