Lincoln Castle

Lincoln Castle is a substantial motte-and-bailey castle begun in 1068 and significantly altered through the 12th, 13th, 14th, and 19th centuries, with 20th-century restoration work. Constructed from coursed and squared stone, with herringbone rubble, ashlar dressings, and slate roofs, the castle incorporates a quadrangular curtain wall, an east gateway and lodges, an observatory tower, the Lucy Tower (keep), a west gate, and Cobb Hall (the north-east angle tower).

The restored curtain wall features a crenellated parapet and a wall walk. The east gateway, originally 11th century, was extended in the 14th century and has a restored double chamfered gateway. Above the gateway are semicircular tourelles, each with a doorway, and a pointed wall between them. A 11th-century tunnel vault lies under the entrance arch. Inside the gate are a pair of mid-19th century crenellated lodges designed as a barbican, with semicircular ends and two storeys, each with three stone mullioned double lancet windows, topped with hoodmoulds. A pointed archway with crenellations sits between the windows. A reset canted 15th-century oriel window, with three ogee headed lancets and crocketed pinnacles, from a house on the High Street, is set into the north wall inside the gateway.

The square observatory tower, dating back to the 11th century, has 14th-century additions and extensive remodelling from the mid-19th century, a string course, and a crenellated parapet. A garderobe shaft, resembling a buttress, is on the west side, flanked by a pointed doorway above a lancet window. The east side has square corner towers, while the south side features sham arrow slits. A chamfered pointed doorway and a similarly chamfered ogee headed doorway, both from the 14th century, are above. A 19th-century round tower with stepped rectangular lights is in the south-west corner.

The Lucy Tower, located on the motte to the south, dates to the late 12th century and was restored in the 19th century; it is now roofless. It has a polygonal plan with a string course, plain buttresses, and a consolidated parapet. A projecting north-eastern gateway has a billeted round arched outer opening and a segmental inner opening with a hoodmould. A smaller south-western entrance has a segmental head. To the south-west is a small roofless chamber.

The square west gatehouse, initially 11th century and rebuilt in 1233, has a blocked round headed opening with an inserted doorway flanked by the remains of barbican walls, with two slit windows and a blocked access doorway above. Cobb Hall, a 13th-century structure, has been reduced in height and remodelled in the 19th century, exhibiting a semicircular outer face with slit windows, an inner square face, and a chamfered doorway flanked by single slit windows, all beneath a crenellated parapet.

The interior of Cobb Hall features two storeys with chamfered rib vaulting, forming four vaulted cells in the lower part and six radial cells in the rounded end of the upper storey. This building was historically used for executions, and remnants of the gallows fittings remain on the outer parapet. The castle is a Scheduled Ancient Monument.