Windsor Castle

The castle dominates the small town of Windsor from a low hill, its Round Tower and long ranges of walls visible from the streets and the river below.

Inside, the State Apartments are grand set-piece rooms of gilt, painting and armour, still used for ceremonies and state visits.

St George's Chapel is the quieter highlight, a masterpiece of late Gothic and the burial place of many monarchs, including Henry VIII, Charles I and most recently Queen Elizabeth II.

Because it is a real working residence, parts can close at short notice, and the changing of the guard brings a burst of ceremony to the wards.

Windsor Castle is the oldest continuously occupied castle in England, its stone defences replacing William the Conqueror's original timber motte-and-bailey from 1066 and forming the principal royal fortress for the Plantagenet and Tudor monarchs.

The Round Tower at the centre dates from the 12th century under Henry II and was raised in its present form under Charles II, its present height the result of a later rebuilding that added the clock face and turrets visible across the Thames valley.

The precision of the Long Walk — a straight, tree-lined avenue three miles long running south from the castle — is one of the most copied pieces of English landscape planning, copied at Kensington Palace, Blenheim and dozens of English country houses.

The castle's location above the Thames gave it both strategic value and direct water access, making it the preferred weekend retreat of every monarch from Henry I onwards.

It is the oldest and largest occupied castle in the world and embodies nearly a thousand years of English and British royal history in one site.

The State Apartments and St George's Chapel together hold outstanding art, architecture and royal tombs.

Its closeness to London makes it one of the easiest ways to see a genuine working royal residence rather than a museum-only palace.