Tutbury Castle

Tutbury Castle is a substantial medieval fortress perched on wooded slopes above the River Dove in Staffordshire, commanding strategic views across the Dove Valley toward the Derbyshire hills. Founded around 1068-69 as a Norman motte and bailey stronghold to control key north-south communication routes, the castle's surviving structures date primarily from the 14th and 15th centuries when it flourished under Lancastrian patronage. The castle earned particular historical note as the imprisonment site of Mary, Queen of Scots beginning in 1569, though she famously resented both the confinement and the building's deteriorated state. Following its role as a Royalist stronghold during the English Civil War and subsequent Parliamentary siege in 1646, the castle was partially demolished by order of Parliament in 1647, leaving dramatic ruins that remain under the ownership of the Duchy of Lancaster.