Ashby de la Zouch Castle

En un regard

Le château en bref

In the heart of the small town of Ashby de la Zouch, in north-west Leicestershire, the ruins of the castle still tower above the rooftops. What began as a 12th-century manor house, held by the Breton Zouch family who gave the town its name, became in the late 15th century the main residence of William, Lord Hastings, chamberlain to Edward IV. Hastings built a chapel there and above all the Hastings Tower, a residential tower about 27 metres high, among the largest in Great Britain. His project, cut short by his execution in 1483, was only half completed. His descendants, the Earls of Huntingdon, received James I and Charles I; Mary, Queen of Scots, was briefly held there in 1569. A Royalist stronghold during the Civil War, the castle surrendered in 1646 and was then deliberately slighted: the south face of the great tower was brought down. The romantic ruins inspired Walter Scott's tournament in Ivanhoe (1819). Managed today by English Heritage, the site lets visitors climb to the top of the tower, explore the underground passage to the kitchen and wander through the Wilderness gardens.