From Downton Abbey (Highclere!) to the Queen's residence, here's a guide to eight of Great Britain's greatest castles. If you're wedding planning and rolling in it and still need a venue, you'll want to print this out for sure.
Donnington Castle
British people know their castles just about as well as they know their local pub's happy hour specials — be it a motte and bailey mud fort or an extravagant estate labelled a castle just because the noble-blooded can get away with it. Just about everyone visits their 'local' castle on school trips to make pointless rubbings of old stone walls and learn about what child labor they'd have undertaken in the keep a few centuries back; just about everyone's grandparents take them for a picnic at Windsor Castle over the summer holidays — but then maybe they threaten not to take you anywhere again after you eat all the sweets you bought in the gift shop on the journey home and make the car stop three times so you can throw up on the side of the road.
Oh, and just about everyone has some crazy friend with wealthy parents who insists on getting married at a castle for the fairytale photos — castles and estates increasingly rely on weddings, receptions, and corporate events to pay the bills. Why else would they let the peasants (back) in to poke around?
Caerphilly Castle
Castles, stately homes, old ruins and the like all bring out the best and worst in Brits simultaneously — the best being an otherwise odd sense of patriotism and pride at Great Britain's illustrious heritage (everybody loves a hedge maze); the worst because fuck it, you'll really never be able to live somewhere that big unless the plot of World War Z comes to life and barricade-able castles become the best refuge from Cockney zombies.
So in honor of Downton Abbey's third season U.S. premiere and the reality that everyone loves a good castle, here's an octet of Great Britain's greatest castles (and stately homes masquerading as castles with their titles). The list features Downton of course, in reality known as Highclere Castle, alongside royal residences and broke-down coastal forts; I should note that I'm biased against those I've visited on a day trip only to be attacked by peacocks, which for some reason are almost always present in the well-kept grounds. (Rich folk trolling the proles with underfed exotic birds, basically.) Please let me know in the comments if I've left out your favorite pile of Medieval ruins.
