Conisbrough Castle

Standing tall for over 800 years: Climb to the top of the keep for panoramic views over the surrounding countryside.

As you explore the keep’s three big chambers and lovely miniature chapel you’ll be guided by larger-than-life wall-projected figures. Vivid, graphic novel-style interpretation guides you round the whole fortress, featuring builders, servants, ladies-in-waiting and squires from the castle’s past.

The introductory exhibition traces Conisbrough’s story from its beginnings to the present day, telling how the castle gained fame as the setting of Walter Scott’s smash-hit Regency novel, Ivanhoe. A cutaway model offers a virtual tour of the keep if you don’t want to climb the stairs.

‘Conisbrough’ comes from the Anglo-Saxon word ‘Cyningesburh’, meaning ‘the king’s borough’. Little is known of the site before the Norman Conquest, but Conisbrough town was certainly important long before then: a major Anglian church, now the church of St Peter, stood here, probably as early as the 8th century, and is the oldest standing building in South Yorkshire.