Every castle
has a second oneunderneath it.

24 of Europe's most photographed fortresses — and underneath each one, the version the tour skips. Murders at weddings. Prisons under chapels. Legends that collapse the moment you check a date.

A groom stabbed at his own wedding
A ten-year-old king forced to watch his dinner guests dragged out and beheaded
A queen crowned in an afternoon, before anyone could organise a reason to stop her

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♔ Castles of
Myth and Blood 24 Castles where the legend
and the truth went
their separate ways Edinburgh Bran Bodiam

First
edition
2026

By Forgotten Castles The channel's first companion volume — the research behind the films, with the dark parts left in.

Contents

Twenty-four castles,
in four parts.

Part I

Britain and Ireland

Where the crown was decided on crags and cliff edges

Edinburgh Castle · Scotland
Dunnottar Castle · Scotland
Tantallon Castle · Scotland
Lindisfarne Castle · England
Bodiam Castle · England
Corfe Castle · England

Part II

The Celtic Fringe and Its Islands

Clan feuds, hostage nurses, and a haunted chapel that earned its name

Castle Stalker · Scotland
Duart Castle · Scotland
Rock of Cashel · Ireland
Leap Castle · Ireland
Carrickfergus Castle · N. Ireland
Harlech Castle · Wales

Part III

Central Europe and the Carpathians

Forced labour, cursed wells, and the mountain fortress the tourists never find

Poenari Castle · Romania
Bran Castle · Romania
Corvin Castle · Romania
Orava Castle · Slovakia
Spiš Castle · Slovakia
Trakai Island Castle · Lithuania

Part IV

The Germanic and Alpine World, and Beyond

A mad king, a mad scientist, and two fortresses that were never really castles at all

Neuschwanstein · Germany
Hohenwerfen Fortress · Austria
Burg Frankenstein · Germany
Castel Sant'Angelo · Italy
Alcázar of Segovia · Spain
Mont Saint-Michel · France

Questions

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Anything that opens a PDF: phone, tablet, laptop, e-reader. Download it once and it's yours to keep, offline, forever. No app, no account, no subscription.

Is it a horror book or a history book?

History, written without flinching. Legends and oral traditions are identified as such in the text; where the record is contested, that's noted rather than resolved for you. The unpleasant parts are in because they happened, not for effect.

What if it isn't for me?

Reply to the delivery email within 7 days and you'll be refunded in full. Keep the file. No form, no reason required.

Bring your favourite castle.
Watch it get complicated.

Twenty-four fortresses, twelve centuries, every legend checked against the record. One PDF, on your phone in the next two minutes. And it's not the story you were told.

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Every castle
has a second oneunderneath it.