About
Lancaster Castle is one of the most historically significant and architecturally extraordinary surviving castle complexes in England — a massive Norman, medieval, and Georgian structure that served continuously as a working crown court and prison from the 12th century until 2011, when HM Prison Lancaster was finally closed.
Now open to the public for the first time in its nine-hundred-year history, the castle reveals layer upon layer of history: Roman foundations beneath the Norman keep, medieval towers built by John of Gaunt (whose titles included Duke of Lancaster), a Georgian crown court where some of England's most notorious trials were conducted, and a Victorian prison wing whose cells held criminals, debtors, and political prisoners from across the north of England.
The castle's position on a hill above the River Lune, dominating the medieval town of Lancaster, reflects its dual historical purpose as both a military fortification and a centre of royal administrative power.
The Duchy of Lancaster — the historic inheritance of the English Crown, which provides the monarch with a private income — still owns the castle and has overseen its conversion into a heritage visitor attraction. Guided tours take visitors through the courtrooms where the Pendle Witches were condemned in 1612, the drop room where condemned prisoners awaited execution, the underground cells where prisoners were held in conditions of extraordinary deprivation, and the magnificent Shire Hall whose Gothic revival interior is among the finest late 18th-century court interiors in England.
The Pendle Witch Trials of 1612 — the largest mass trial for witchcraft in English history, in which twenty people were tried and ten hanged — took place in Lancaster Castle's assizes and are the defining episode in the castle's history, known throughout the world and drawing visitors from every continent.
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Plan Your Visit
⏱️ Recommended Visit Duration
💡 Visitor Tips
- Book a guided tour in advance, especially in summer — the tour is essential for access to the courtrooms, prison wing, and drop room, and guide knowledge is exceptional
- Lancaster train station is only 10 minutes' walk from the castle — this is a very accessible day trip from Manchester (1 hour) or even London (2.5 hours on a fast service)
- The Judge's Lodgings Museum on Church Street nearby is a perfect companion visit — an elegant 17th-century town house where the circuit judges stayed when holding the assizes
- The Pendle Witch Trials are the castle's most famous story — if you are interested in the full context, consider visiting Pendle Hill and the surrounding villages (about 20 miles south-east) where the accused witches lived
- The views from the castle walls over Lancaster and the River Lune valley are magnificent — allow time to enjoy them
- The castle is at the top of a steep hill from the city centre — wear comfortable shoes for the climb up Castle Hill and the adjacent Vicarage Field
- Evening tours and ghost tours are particularly popular — book well in advance if you want the ghost experience of the prison wing by torchlight
Highlights
The Pendle Witch Trials of 1612
The most famous event in Lancaster Castle's history — indeed one of the most famous events in English legal history — is the Pendle Witch Trial of 1612, the largest mass trial for witchcraft in English history. Twenty people from the Pendle area of Lancashire were brought to Lancaster Assizes charged with witchcraft; ten were found guilty and hanged on the Moor outside the town.
The trial took place at the summer assizes, and the records — preserved in remarkable detail by the clerk of the court Thomas Potts in his account 'The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches' — give an unusually complete picture of the accusations, the evidence, and the social tensions that drove the prosecutions.
The castle's courtroom where the trial took place is shown on guided tours.
The Norman Keep and Hadrian's Tower
The oldest surviving structure at Lancaster Castle is the Norman keep, dating from the 11th century and built on the site of a Roman fort that guarded the crossing of the River Lune. The Romans constructed a significant fort here in the 1st century AD, and fragments of Roman masonry have been found beneath the medieval structures.
The keep, massive and severe, dominates the hill as it has for nearly a thousand years.
Adjacent to it stands Hadrian's Tower — named after the Roman emperor — one of the medieval defensive towers that reinforced the castle's walls from the 13th century. Together they represent the castle's evolution from Roman military installation to Norman stronghold.
The Shire Hall — Gothic Revival Masterpiece
The Shire Hall, added to the castle complex in the late 18th century by the architects Thomas Harrison and Joseph Gandy, is one of the finest Gothic Revival interiors in England. Built to provide Lancaster County with a proper assize court fitting for a major judicial centre, the Shire Hall has a dramatic vaulted ceiling decorated with the shields of the Duchy of Lancaster and the English monarchs, a grand jury box, and an imposing judicial bench.
The room retains its original furnishings and fittings, including the dock where prisoners stood.
It serves as a powerful reminder of how seriously the 18th century took the architecture of justice.
The Prison Cells and Drop Room
Lancaster Castle functioned as a working prison from the 12th century until 2011, and the Victorian prison wing that was its most recent incarnation survives largely intact. The cell blocks, the condemned cell where prisoners awaited execution, and the drop room where the condemned were prepared for hanging are shown on guided tours.
The experience is sobering and historically illuminating — the castle hanged over 200 people in the 18th and 19th centuries, and the drop room with its trapdoor mechanism is a chilling survival from an era of public execution.
The prison held not only criminals but also political prisoners, debtors, and those whose only crime was poverty.
Collections
Lancaster Castle holds an important collection of legal and judicial artefacts spanning the castle's long history as a court and place of imprisonment, including original court furniture, judges' robes and wigs, legal instruments and records, prison equipment and personal effects of prisoners, heraldic displays relating to the Duchy of Lancaster and the English Crown, and archaeological material from the Roman and medieval periods.
The castle's documentation archive includes trial records stretching back several centuries, providing an unparalleled record of the legal and criminal history of north-west England. The building itself is the primary collection — an architectural and historical document of extraordinary completeness.
The Castle Story
Permanent interpretation of the castle's nine-century history from Roman fort to working prison
The Pendle Witch Trials
Dedicated display on the 1612 trials including documents, contextual material, and the trial courtroom
Justice and Punishment
The castle's role in the Lancashire legal system from medieval to Victorian times
Current Exhibitions
No current exhibitions. Please check the museum website for updates.