The English Heritage website tells us...
"This romantic castle with stunning views over Conisbrough, inspired Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe and still fires the imagination today. With floors and roof restored in the lofty circular keep you can fully appreciate the magnificence of the original 12th century building. Delve into the medieval world of Lord and Lady de Warenne, and enjoy the grassy areas around the castle walls for games and picnics.
EXPLORE THE CASTLE
Step inside the crumbling castle walls and be amazed by the unsually well-preserved keep. The reinstated floors allow you to fully explore the private chambers and steep curving staircases of this impressive castle.
Stare down into the basement, then climb right up to the roof top and drink in dramatic views of the surrounding town and countryside.
For 850 years the castle has been a landmark for its community and a symbol of the power, wealth and ambition of the powerful de Warennes who built it.
12TH CENTURY WORLD
Inside the massive circular keep you can explore the 12th century world of its first inhabitants, Lord Hamelin and Lady Isabel de Warenne.
Hamelin was the illegitimate son of Geoffrey of Anjou (father of the Plantagenet dynasty) and half-brother of Henry II. Isabel was the 4th Countess of Surrey, and the wealthiest heiress in the land.
Find out more about their lives in the castle keep as they reveal their private thoughts through animated characters projected on the castle walls. There are also a range of display panels in 'graphic novel' style.
VISITOR CENTRE
There is a first class welcome and plenty to do in the visitor centre.
Peek inside the model of the circular keep and enjoy the castle exhibition.
Object displays, a digital model and illustrated panels all help to bring the castle's history to life. With new stories to tell there's no better time to visit.
EXPLORE THE DEFENCES<.
After the heights of the castle, come back down to earth and enjoy a walk around the defences, ditches and banks. See if you can find the place where part of the castle slid down the hillside...
There are plenty of grassed areas that you can use for games and picnics. Children are welcome to run around and explore, why not bring a football or kite?"
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The castle is a Historic England Grade I Listed Building.
"Remains of castle in the guardianship of English Heritage. Keep of c1180, curtain walls built soon after; later medieval additions and alterations. For Hamelin Plantagenet, 5th Earl Warren and illegitimate half brother to Henry II. Ashlar magnesian limestone keep, curtain walls of coursed rubble. Cylindrical, 4-storey keep with 6 full-height buttresses within D-shaped enclosure having remains of gatehouse and barbican to south. Keep: approx 27 metres in height with strongly splayed base and prominent semi-hexagonal buttresses. Entrance in south side, reached by C20 concrete steps, has joggled lintel and relieving arch as does twin window above; quatrefoil chapel windows, in buttress above on right, have pelleted surrounds; round- arched, upper-floor window beyond buttress on left. Interior: cylindrical. Vaulted basement with central aperture beneath which is a well. Plain lower storey with stone stairs within the walls. Principal chamber on 1st floor has large fireplace with clustered columns, joggled lintel and canopy; to right a square-headed basin recess; opposite fireplace a deep window recess with stone benches. 2nd floor: similar but smaller fireplace with trefoil-headed basin recess on right. Opposite the fireplace is a chapel with vestry built within the wall and one buttress. The chapel is hexagonal with rib-vaulting on pilasters and engaged columns (of which only 1 remains); 2 trefoil-headed piscinas, round-arched east window with roll moulding and chevrons to hood, quatrefoil side windows. Vault has transverse rib with chevrons, crossed ribs to each side rise to bosses. Stairs lead to the roof level where the tops of the buttresses have been adapted for various purposes: dovecote, oven and water tanks. Curtain wall: splayed base with rubble brought to course heights aligned with quoins at the changes of direction; the wall is interspersed with cylindrical tower projections of solid masonry; 2 sections of the wall have been refaced in ashlar. C13 barbican walls flank the approach to former gatehouse which, together with a section of wall to tie east, has slid downslope. Foundations remain of various buildings set against the north, east and south walls of the inner bailey. The keep is similar to that at Mortemer, near Dieppe in France, also owned by the Warren family. The curtain walls with their solid cylindrical towers represent a transitional stage in defensive architecture from solid rectangular forms to hollow turrets. Visited by King John in 1201. Later popularised by Sir Walter Scott's novel 'Ivanhoe'. Scheduled Ancient Monument. More fully described and illustrated in: S. Johnson, conisbrough Castle, D.O.E. handbook, HMSO 1984."
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