Blackness Castle is a 15th-century fortress, near the village of Blackness, Scotland, on the south shore of the Firth of Forth.   It was built, probably on the site of an earlier fort, by Sir George Crichton in the 1440s. At this time, Blackness was...

Stirling Castle, located in Stirling, is one of the largest and most important castles in Scotland, both historically and architecturally. The castle sits atop Castle Hill, an intrusive crag, which forms part of the Stirling Sill geological formation. It is surrounded on three sides by...

Lancaster Castle is a medieval castle in Lancaster in the English county of Lancashire. Its early history is unclear but may have been founded in the 11th century on the site of a Roman fort overlooking a crossing of the River Lune. In 1164, the...

Prehistoric settlement: The site at West Stow has shown evidence of human habitation throughout British prehistory. Indeed, the wider Lark Valley contains the greatest known concentration of prehistoric settlements in the region of East Anglia. Mesolithic: Excavation at West Stow has discovered evidence for hunter-gatherers...

Wistman’s Wood has been mentioned in writing for hundreds of years. It is likely to be a left-over from the ancient forest that covered much of Dartmoor c. 7000 BC before Mesolithic hunter/gatherers cleared it around 5000 BC. Photographic and other records show that Wistman’s...

Wookey Hole Caves – Fossils of a range of animals have been found including the Pleistocene lion, Cave hyena, and Badger. Wookey Hole was occupied by humans in the Iron Age, possibly around 250-300 BC, while nearby Hyena Cave was occupied by Stone Age hunters....

  Sutton Hoo is of primary importance because it sheds light on a period of English history (6/7th century) that is on the margin between myth, legend, and historical documentation. Use of the site culminated at a time when Rædwald of the East Angles played...

Old Sarum is the site of the earliest settlement of Salisbury in England. Located on a hill about 2 miles north of modern Salisbury near the A345 road, the settlement appears in some of the earliest records in the country.   The great monoliths of...

Usk Castle is a castle site in the town of Usk in central Monmouthshire, southeast Wales, United Kingdom. Within the castle, and incorporating parts of its gatehouse, stands Castle House.   Usk castle and town was probably laid out and established in 1120, after some...

Urquhart Castle sits beside Loch Ness in the Highlands of Scotland. The castle is on the A82 road, 21 kilometers south-west of Inverness and 2 kilometers east of the village of Drumnadrochit.   The name Urquhart derives from the 7th-century form Airdchartdan, itself a mix...

Orford Castle is a castle in Orford in the English county of Suffolk, 12 miles northeast of Ipswich, with views over Orford Ness. It was built between 1165 and 1173 by Henry II of England.   Prior to the building of Orford Castle, Suffolk was...

Eilean Donan is a small tidal island where three sea lochs meet, Loch Duich, Loch Long, and Loch Alsh, in the western Highlands of Scotland. A picturesque castle that frequently appears in photographs, film, and television dominates the island, which lies about 1 kilometer from...