One of England's finest Norman keeps, ringed by huge grassy earth banks in a quiet Norfolk village, and once home to a queen
Open to visitorsan English Heritage site — check opening times and admission before you go
Substantial ruinsruined, but plenty survives above ground
Come at it across the great earth banks first — the keep sits inside a ring of enormous grassed ramparts, so deep that the stonework only appears once you’re over the top. William d’Aubigny, a Norman lord who married the widowed queen of Henry I, built the keep around 1138, and it’s one of the best-preserved and most richly decorated of its kind in England, its outer walls carved with blind arcading. The famous resident came later: Queen Isabella, widow of Edward II and the woman behind his downfall, spent her long final years here after her son Edward III took power and had her lover executed. She was not, whatever the old story says, locked up mad in a tower — she lived in some comfort and came and went. The keep is roofless but you can climb through its rooms and along the wall walk. English Heritage runs it. There’s a 12th-century Norman church just outside the gates, and the wider Norfolk Coast with Sandringham is a short drive north.
More at the National Heritage List entry
