Lincoln Castle

When you live in a city like Lincoln, having a castle is just part of everyday life. The castle might just be in your back yard.





Or maybe your playground butts up against the castle walls just outside the gate.

Or perhaps you are a publican just digging a bit for more of a garden for fresh vegetables for your lunch patrons and turn up some archeologically significant findings--and a fine for digging in the castle wall.

Walking along the castle walls, you can have another view of the Cathedral towers across the Bailgate, or look down into the castle grounds to see that, yes, indeed, it continues to host the crown court (though no longer the site of a prison.)

Cobb Hall was a defensive tower built sometime in the thirteenth century. It was later the site of public executions, which took place on the Cobb Hall roof. Currently, it is the home of one stubborn pigeon...

The rounded arch of the main gate, with the pointed Gothic arch which was later added, point out the years of changes of an active castle.

The Countess Lucy was a Constable of the Prison, a post held by several women over the centuries when the castle housed the prison as well as a military presence
The Keep was the home of the Constable and place of last resort in case of siege. The Lucy Tower was also the burial place for prisoners.

The Observatory Tower is a significant landmark of the Keep. The stone standing on the lawn is remnant of one of the Eleanor Crosses, monuments in honor of Eleanor of Castile, established at the nightly resting places of her funeral procession from Harby, near Lincoln, to London.