How 'bout a cool freaking Castle thrread?

[PeterSibley]

Dunnotar:

What an absolute pig of a place to supply or attack !!

[Paul Pless]

There's an American Castle.

Dan

Awesome... how could I have forgotten...

[Big Woody]

Just when you thought a few cannons on the roof to keep the riffraff out, aught to guarantee some peace and quiet and a modicum of privacy....



Nope! The U.S. government had to build a bridge over the top of the place.


Fort Point in San Fransisco in case you were wondering.

[Nicholas Carey]

I beg to differ. Castles of the day were military installations - the most modern marvels of engineering that there was to offer when they were built. The ones posted above in North America were the same at the time they were built. They may not all be the "romantic" European/Asian/Middle Eastern ideals, but they're still "castles".

Castillo de San Marcos, St. Augustine, Florida

[Canoez]

There's an American Castle.

Dan

Dan - excellent choice.

[Bruce Taylor]

Dan - excellent choice.

Yes, that's pulsing with cool freakingness. I'll concede that one, and Doug's house.

[Steve Paskey]

I've always liked Castle Urquhart. When I was 19, I spent a morning there scanning Loch Ness for signs of the "monster."

[J. Dillon]

Some castle lore:

I once worked with a guy who lived near Blarney castle Cork Ireland.
As A kid he and his friends would go up there at night and pee on the stone.
The next day the tourists would kiss the stone. I bet some kids still do it.

Most castles would have winding stair cases so made in a counter clockwise direction. This would hamper right handed invading swordsmen as their weapon wielding would be hampered by the walls.

Many castles had stairs that would stairs ending in a free falls.

Also ports cut in the walls for archers would be in a cross shape. This would confuse invaders aim with bows and arrows.

Any more castle lore WB forumites ?

JD

JD

[Canoez]

Yes, that's pulsing with cool freakingness. I'll concede that one, and Doug's house.

Doug's for cool freakingness?

[Bruce Taylor]

Most castles would have winding stair cases so made in a counter clockwise direction.

Some I've been in have cleverly intertwined spirals, so the folks clanking downstairs never meet the ones rushing up.

[Bruce Taylor]

Doug's for cool freakingness?

You bet. In a thread full of castles (including some incredibly lame gothic revival fantasies, fast food joints, stumpy old forts, and even a prison) his house really stands out. Also, I like the guards.

[Paul Pless]

Some I've been in have cleverly intertwined spirals, so the folks clanking downstairs never meet the ones rushing up.

picture?

[Canoez]

Yeah, We got hot and cold running 9 and 3 year olds.
It only has to be freaking cool to me ... till I tear it down and build a new one

Doug

'Tis cool, Doug. We refer to our place as the Chateau D'Zaster and have similar guards. Home with Scooter?

[Bruce Taylor]

picture?

Chambord is one...



A pic of the stair:



There was another, where the stair is out in the courtyard (can't remember the name of that one)

Edit...ah, here it is. Blois:

[Kaa]

Himeji castle, also known as the White Heron Castle




In spite of the name, it's known for its ravens







and, as you can see, the style is quite different from the European castles...




Kaa

[Big Woody]

Any more castle lore WB forumites ?

Fort Point had seven foot thick walls designed to resist over 10,000 cannon balls. But with the invention of the rifled cannon that could hit the same spot repeatedly the fort became obsolete.

Sir! I regret to report that the reflected decibel level in these cannon bays is higher than OSHA has deemed safe and I will need an ergonomic chair at my post of duty.

[L.W. Baxter]

More palace than castle, but Angkor Wat is freaking cool.

[Robert Meyer]

Snake Castle near Adana Turkey.

[martin schulz]

Tintagel in Cornwall, supposedly the birth place of Arthur. Abandoned in 1300 and something when the entire castle kitchen area and staff fell into the sea.

Well the ruins are from the 13th century.

Tintagel Castle (grid reference SX051889) is a castle currently in ruins found on Tintagel Island, located near the village of Tintagel in Cornwall, England, UK. The 'Island' is in fact a peninsula subject to erosion by the sea. The site was perhaps originally a Roman settlement, though the remains of the castle that stand today date from the 13th century.

[The Bigfella]

Aussie castle. We don't need any stinking cold castles....

[The Bigfella]

Another Aussie one. This is the Ruined Castle in the Alpine National Park, in Victoria



I've seen photos without people on it to give it scale and it looks amazing.

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

The Pope has a castle:



Actually, it's a conversion. The Castel Saint-Angelo was built by the Emperor Hadrian as his mausoleum, and was converted into a castle just before the first Fall of Rome, to the Visigoths, in 410 AD.

[WX]

The Pope has a castle:

Well if he feels the need for a castle...whatever happened to trusting in the Lord?

[GregW]

You need a big canon if you have a large fort.

[huisjen]

Well if he feels the need for a castle...whatever happened to trusting in the Lord?

He does. But he don't trust them other fellers.

Dan

[George.]

A couple of South American ones:

[Bruce Taylor]

A couple of South American ones:

El Morro looks the part, seen from below with theatrical lighting. But when you look at it from the other side, 73% of its cool freakingness falls away:



Where's the keep? The great hall, where men in mismatched leotards gambol about for the entertainment of pale damsels in gauzy dunce-caps? The barbican, the machicolations, the garderobe hovering precariously over the stinking moat?

Just another fort.

[George.]

The Castle of San Felipe is freaking cool from afar and from up close. They need to knock over those ugly white buildings, though, or at least disguise them as siege towers:

[Bruce Taylor]

The Castle of San Felipe is freaking cool

...for a fort.

[George.]

It's officially called "Castillo de San Felipe de Barajas," it's fortified, and it was a residence.

[oldsub86]

http://wbi.lib.umanitoba.ca/Winnipeg...247&size=large

This is a local condominium building put up a few years ago.
Architects seem to dislike it but I wouldn't mind living there.

Randy

[oldsub86]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Otter_Castle

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/32/38...fee6e487ea.jpg

White Otter Castle in northwestern Ontario near Ignace, between Dryden and Thunder Bay.

Randy

[Big Woody]

Kansas Castle

[Oyvind Snibsoer]

Beaufort Castle, Lebanon

Well, there's even less left of it these days. There were some SLA/IDF positions there during the Israeli occupation. I was on a night ambush patrol in the hills surrounding the village of Chebaa in the spring of '92. Hezbollah had overrun the SLA positions and both they and IDF were very eager to get them back. We were too far away to hear any gunfire, but there was quite a firework display in the sky.

[Steve Paskey]

Well the ruins are from the 13th century.

Tintagel Castle (grid reference SX051889) is a castle currently in ruins found on Tintagel Island, located near the village of Tintagel in Cornwall, England, UK. The 'Island' is in fact a peninsula subject to erosion by the sea. The site was perhaps originally a Roman settlement, though the remains of the castle that stand today date from the 13th century.

Right. The legends concerning Arthur's birth refer to a much older Celtic stronghold that was supposedly near the same site.

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

Well if he feels the need for a castle...whatever happened to trusting in the Lord?

It came in very handy when His Holiness was at war with the Holy Roman Emperor...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sack_of_Rome_(1527)

[huisjen]

I really like these:





Dan

[nedL]

We have our own castle here in Woodstock CT!

[Clencher]

Couple of my local efforts - Pembroke and Carew.

[dhic001]

Here are some of my favourite castles.
Firstly one that can be lived in, Hever Castle, once the family home of Anne Boleyn. Purchased and restored in the early 20th Century by W.W. Astor, and turned into a lovely home. The castle wasn't big enough for him, so he built the neightbouring 'Tudor village' to add an extra 100 rooms! Part of the village is just visable behind the castle in this photo.


My home town here in New Zealand was named after Warkworth, Northumberland, which has a magnificent castle ruin. Warkworth Castle was once a seat of the Percy family, Earls and later Dukes of Northumberland. The current Duke lives in nearby Alnwick Castle, where the exterior scenes of Harry Potter was shot. As can be seen, Warkworth Castle isn't in such good repair.


Finally the lovely Bodiam Castle in Sussex, the large moted castle that never saw any action. Built to help protect against the French, who never came.


Daniel