Nottingham Castle is situated high up on what is known as the Castle Rock.

Nottingham Castle

Off Friar Lane

Off Maid Marian Way

Nottingham. NG1 6EL Nottinghamshire

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Telephone  44 (0)  115 915 3700

About Nottingham Castle and the City of Nottingham Robin Hood and his merry men!.

When staying in the Vale of Belvoir you are about twenty mins from Belvoir Castle to visit and see the Castle of legands Nottingham Castle. Well you may have come to see the sherriff of Nottingham in his Castle and he may not be home in his Castle today however you will find Robin Hood outside the Castle gates in statu form only! The visits and guides you may follow, take you down the right named streets "Friar Lane" and "Maid Marion Way" your imagination no doubt runs wild, will you meet the fat friar on his lane? Or the most loverly girl in Nottingham Maid Marion? Anyway Nottingham Castle is situated high up on what is known as the Castle Rock over looking the great city of Nottingham, Nottingham Castle is visited by over 270,000 visitors each year, that is a lot of tourists no doubt all looking for Nottinghams number one guy Robin Hood! Nottingham Castle is visited by all types of tourist and the numbers includes school children, families, academics and tourists from all over the world. If Robin Hood is not at the Castle you may have to go to Sherwood Forest and look for him in the mighty oak tree! It is only about twenty mins by car from the Nottingham Castle.

The films and history of Robin Hood the legend ,has a lot to do with Nottingham being so popular to tourists. Many of them expect to find a traditional English Castle. However it is not quite the Castle that they imagined instead they find the first Duke of Newcastle's Ducal Palace. However, the prospect house that remains is as precious as any historic structure in the country and is unique and enchanting in its own right. The building is therefore protected by Grade One listed status, whilst Castle Rock and the cave system within it, is a Scheduled Ancient Monument. All that being said you just know that Robin Hood is hiding somewhere near by! Just waiting to get even with that bad old Sherriff of Nottingham when he returns to his Castle!

Nottingham Castle, the City of Caves and The Galleries of Justice Museum.

The History of Nottingham Castle

1067 - William the Conqueror builds the first Castle on the site, a wooden structure built upon the vantage point of the Castle rock.

1170 - The Castle is rebuilt in stone by Henry II. It is now the principal royal fortress in the Midlands.

1194 - Richard The Lionheart reclaims Nottingham Castle from his brother John using siege tactics. This is the only time in the Castle's history that an occupier is defeated in such a way.

1330 - Roger Mortimer, lover of Queen Isabella, is captured by supporters of her son, King Edward III who enter the castle through a tunnel cut through the rock. The cave is known as Mortimer's Hole to this day and is a favourite spot with visitors.

1485 - Richard III leaves Nottingham Castle to ride to Bosworth where he dies in battle at the hands of Henry Tudor who claims the throne, becoming Henry VII.

1622 - James I sells Nottingham Castle to the Earl of Rutland.

1642 - Charles I raises his standard outside the castle walls, here beginning the Civil War. Ironically for most of the war the site is held by the opposing parliamentary forces under the command of Colonel Hutchinson.

1651 - Permission is given for Hutchinson to demolish Nottingham Castle.

1663 - William Cavendish, First Duke of Newcastle ,purchases the site.  He begins work on a prospect house high on Castle Rock but dies before its completion. His son completes the work on this unique building in 1678.

1831 - The building is attacked and looted by rioters following the Duke of Newcastle's opposition to parliamentary reform.  The Ducal Palace is gutted internally when arsonists vent their anger at the Duke.  As a silent rebuke to the people of Nottingham the Duke leaves the ruined building un-repaired for 45 years.

1875 - Thomas Chambers Hine, a local architect, is appointed to adapt the Castle into a building suitable for use as a museum and art gallery.  

1878 - Nottingham Castle is opened by the Prince of Wales who later becomes Edward VII. Nottingham celebrates the first municipal museum and art gallery outside London.

Exibitions at Nottingham Castle The Long Gallery

Nottingham Castle houses a permanent display of the best of the museum's fine art that include Richard Parkes Bonington, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Dame Laura Knight are among the artists on display in the Long Gallery.Nottingham Castle also hosts many different and exciting temporary exhibitions programme featuring paintings, photography, textiles, installations and sculpture - from internationally-renowned exhibitions to home-grown talents. Previous shows held at the Castle have included Andy Warhol, British Art Show and Waking Dreams a collection of pre-Raphaelite masters.

Nottingham and its city of caves.

86 Broad Marsh, City Centre, Nottingham NG1 7LJ Telephone 0115 988 1955

Beneth the Castle are a range of famous caves you can now nter and explore a whole new world in the caves underneath Nottingham city and descend into the dark depths of the original Anglo-Saxon tunnels, meeting real cave-dwellers from its dramatic hidden past. See how these caves have been used and adapted over the Centuries by local people to escape and take refuge from the world above. You can imagine who and what it was like to shelter down here this is a not to be misses experience.

The family attraction of going underground and walking back in time, that is now the city of caves was made possible thanks to the soft Sherwood Sandstone beneath the city of Nottingham that allowed hand-carved cellars to be excavated and used as store rooms, factories, pub cellars, dwellings and even air raid shelters. Most of the caves remain in private hands, and some were destroyed over time by various city developments. But the city of caves is a protected family attraction and received a £50,000 upgrade in April 2003, with a grand reopening soon afterwards, making it a state of the art family day out to add to your day of visiting the Castle. 

Galleries of Justice Museum.

Weekday Cross, Nottingham NG1 1 Telephone 0115 952 0555

Based at Nottingham’s old courthouse and gaol, there are many ways to explore the Galleries of Justice Museum, with free exhibitions, audio & performance led tours and a themed café. Whatever you choose to do, you will be delving in to the dark and disturbing past of crime and punishment.

The Galleries of Justice Museum was founded in 1993 by the Lace Market Heritage Trust. Basically, the old Shire Hall had lain empty and forgotten for years, until a group of right minded people decided that it was one gem that couldn’t remain hidden, and after an extensive fundraising campaign the museum opened its doors in 1995.However, this isn’t giving the full picture, the Museum may have begun in the 1990s, but the site itself? Well that goes way back, further than any of us know, but we can tell you what we do know and what we intend to find out.

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