Clare Castle

Clare Castle is a high-mounted ruinous medieval castle in the parish and former manor of Clare in Suffolk, England, anciently the caput of a feudal barony. It was built shortly after the Norman Conquest of England in 1066 by Richard Fitz Gilbert, having high motte and bailey and later improved in stone. In the 14th century it was the seat of Elizabeth de Clare, one of the wealthiest women in England, who maintained a substantial household there. The castle passed into the hands of the Crown and by 1600 was disused. The ruins are an unusually tall earthen motte surmounted by tall remnants of a wall and of the round tower, with large grassland or near-rubble gaps on several of their sides. It was damaged by an alternate line of the Great Eastern Railway in 1867, the rails of which have been removed.

The remains are a scheduled monument and a Grade II* listed building. They form the centrepiece of a public park.

Text adapted from “Clare Castle” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Clare Castle ranks #3,755 of 7,044 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #261 of the 315 mapped in England. See how England compares in the castle statistics.

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