Best of North West England
The 20 best castles in North West England
Our curated top 20 castles in North West England, ranked by quality rating, image richness and content depth. For the complete list of 153 castles see the full castles index for North West England.
- 1
Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire ( LANG-kə-shər, -sheer; abbreviated Lancs) is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Ma
- 2
Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, West Yorkshire and Derbyshire to the east, Cheshire to the south, and Merseyside t
- 3
Milnrow
Milnrow is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale, in Greater Manchester, England. It lies on the River Beal at the foothills of the South Pennines, and forms a continuous urban area with
- 4
Oldham
Oldham is a town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies amongst the Pennines on elevated ground between the rivers Irk and Medlock, 5 miles (8 km) southeast of Rochdale, and 7 miles (11 km) northeas
- 5
Atherton, Greater Manchester
Atherton () is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, Greater Manchester, England, historically part of Lancashire. It is five miles (eight kilometres) south of Bolton, seven miles (eleven kilom
- 6
Manchester, Bolton and Bury Canal
The Manchester, Bolton and Bury Canal is a disused canal in Greater Manchester, England, built to link Bolton and Bury with Manchester. The canal, when fully opened, was 15 miles 1 furlong (24 km) lon
- 7
Lancaster Castle
Lancashire
Lancaster Castle is a medieval castle and former prison in Lancaster in the English county of Lancashire. Its early history is unclear, but it is most likely to have been founded in 1092-4 on the site
- 8
Astley, Greater Manchester
Astley is a village in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. Within the boundaries of the historic county of Lancashire, it is crossed by the Bridgewater Canal and the A580 E
- 9
Chadderton
Chadderton is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, Greater Manchester, England, on the River Irk and Rochdale Canal. It is located in the foothills of the Pennines, 1 mile (1.6 km) west of Ol
- 10
Carrbrook
Carrbrook is a village east of Stalybridge, in Greater Manchester, England. Historically part of Cheshire, the area still has many seventeenth and eighteenth-century buildings. Much of the late-ninete
- 11
Piel Castle
Piel Castle, also known as Fouldry Castle or the Pile of Fouldray, is a castle situated on the south-eastern point of Piel Island, off the coast of the Furness Peninsula in north-west England. Built i
- 12
Rochdale Castle
Rochdale Castle was a motte-and-bailey castle in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, England. Historically a part of Lancashire, it was built in the period shortly after the Norman Conquest of England. In t
- 13
Metropolitan Borough of Wigan
The Metropolitan Borough of Wigan is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It is named after its largest town, Wigan, but covers a far larger area which includes the towns of Atherton
- 14
Clitheroe Castle
Lancashire
Clitheroe Castle is a ruined early medieval castle in Clitheroe in the Borough of Ribble Valley, Lancashire, England. It was the caput of the Honour of Clitheroe, a vast estate stretching along the we
- 15
Wray Castle
Wray Castle is a Victorian neo-gothic building at Claife in Cumbria within the boundaries of the historic county of Lancashire. The house and grounds have belonged to the National Trust since 1929. Th
- 16
Bury, Greater Manchester
Bury (, ) is a market town on the River Irwell in the Metropolitan Borough of Bury, Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 81,101 in 2021, while the wider borough had a population of 193,
- 17
Metropolitan Borough of Bolton
The Metropolitan Borough of Bolton ( BOHL-tən) is a metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England, named after its largest town, Bolton, but covering a larger area which includes Blackrod, Farn
- 18
Metropolitan Borough of Bury
The Metropolitan Borough of Bury is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester in England. It is north of Manchester, to the east of Bolton and west of Rochdale. The borough is centred around the to
- 19
Sedbergh
Sedbergh ( SED-bər or locally SEB-ər) is a town and civil parish in the ceremonial county of Cumbria. It falls within the historic boundaries of the West Riding of Yorkshire. Since April 2023, it has
- 20
Failsworth
Failsworth () is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, Greater Manchester, England, 4 miles (6.4 km) north-east of Manchester and 3 miles (4.8 km) south-west of Oldham. The M60 ring-road motor