The roll · The Castle Rolls
Moated castles in the UK.
Every castle on this roll recorded as moated, and the 8 where the evidence on file says the water is still in it. Each one with its Google rating, its nearest station, and the sentence the claim rests on.
21 of the 432 castles on The Castle Rolls are recorded as moated: 14 in England, 4 in Wales and 3 in Scotland. On 8 of them the evidence on file names water in the moat, led by Leeds Castle at 4.7 stars from 13,646 Google reviews. On the other 13 the roll records a moat and does not record whether it still holds water.
Published lists of moated castles run to seven or ten entries and treat the moat as a single quality a castle either has or does not. That leaves the visitor to find out on arrival whether they are looking at the ring of water in the photograph or a dry ditch with sheep in it. Both are moats. Only one of them is what somebody drove two hours to see.
So a castle appears in the first list below only when a single sentence on file names the moat and the water in it, and that sentence is printed with the entry. Where the roll has no such sentence the castle is still here, listed as moated with the water not recorded, because absent evidence is not evidence the moat is dry.
The 8 with water on record
Ranked by the review-weighted score used across this site, which holds a castle's rating toward the national average of 4.50 until it has the reviews to stand on its own. The quoted line under each is the evidence, taken from the roll's research on that castle or from what visitors wrote in their own reviews.
Leeds Castle
4.7 across 13,646 Google reviews. Kent, England. Hollingbourne station 1.1 miles away. On file: Leeds Castle sits on two islands in a lake in the Kent countryside - a moated stronghold with roots in the 9th century, later remodelled as a retreat for Henry VIII, run today by a charitable foundation as much as a family attraction as a historic site.
Caerphilly Castle
4.7 across 8,511 Google reviews. Caerphilly, Wales. Caerphilly station 0.3 miles away. On file: The moat is now shared with resident swans and geese.
Bodiam Castle
4.7 across 8,078 Google reviews. East Sussex, England. On file: It's the castle most people picture when they think of the word - turrets, drawbridge site, a moat full of fish - and National Trust runs it as a fully staffed, family-friendly site.
Nunney Castle
4.7 across 696 Google reviews. Somerset, England. On file: The interior is currently closed - the bridge across the moat has structural issues and is awaiting replacement - so the visit is really a walk around the water's edge, complete with resident ducks.
Duffus Castle
4.6 across 1,227 Google reviews. Moray, Scotland. free to enter. On file: It's free, unstaffed and dog-friendly, with a moat still holding water around the base.
White Castle
4.6 across 989 Google reviews. Monmouthshire, Wales. free to enter. On file: The best preserved of the Three Castles of Gwent, and the only one to keep its water-filled moat - the walls are more complete here than at Grosmont or Skenfrith, giving a clearer sense of what the whole group once looked like.
Whittington Castle
4.6 across 641 Google reviews. Shropshire, England. free to enter. On file: The moat itself, which reviewers rate as the most striking feature - a proper water-filled ring around the ruins, unusual for a site this size.
Baconsthorpe Castle
4.5 across 560 Google reviews. Norfolk, England. free to enter. On file: Reviewers consistently enjoy Baconsthorpe as a free, well-maintained ruin, with several praising the recent restoration work and the peaceful, atmospheric setting complete with a moat and swans.
Moated, with the water not recorded
These 13 are recorded as moated and nothing on file says whether the ditch still holds water. Hever Castle alone carries 13,800 Google reviews, so a castle can be absent from the list above because of what the record does not say rather than because the moat is empty. Each castle's own page carries everything held on it.
England - 9
Bolingbroke Castle
4.5 stars, 803 reviews
Lincolnshire, England
Bramber Castle
4.5 stars, 955 reviews
West Sussex, England
Broughton Castle
4.7 stars, 763 reviews
Oxfordshire, England
Castle Acre Castle and Bailey Gate
4.7 stars, 251 reviews
Norfolk, England
Hever Castle
4.8 stars, 13,800 reviews
Kent, England
Kirby Muxloe Castle
4.2 stars, 649 reviews
Leicestershire, England
Raby Castle
4.6 stars, 3,926 reviews
County Durham, England
Scotney Castle
4.7 stars, 6,963 reviews
Kent, England
Weeting Castle
4.2 stars, 278 reviews
Norfolk, England
Scotland - 2
Wales - 2
What the moat was actually for
Not to stop men swimming across, which is the version most people carry from childhood. A moat stopped men digging. Undermining, driving a tunnel beneath a wall and firing the props to bring it down, was the surest way to take a castle before gunpowder, and it cannot be done through standing water. That is why the finest examples are wet ones, and why the guide to castle moats and water defences spends most of its length on Kenilworth's lost mere and Caerphilly's dammed lakes rather than on drawbridges.
Getting to them
8 of the 21 are free to enter with no ticket and no booking. 4 sit within 1.5 miles of a railway station: Caerphilly Castle (Caerphilly, 0.3 miles), Hever Castle (Hever, 0.9 miles), Leeds Castle (Hollingbourne, 1.1 miles), Weeting Castle (Brandon, 1.2 miles). The distances are straight lines from the station to the castle, so the walk is longer than the number, and the remainder are car journeys.
Where this list comes from
A castle is on this page because a sentence in the roll's record of it mentions a moat, in this site's own research on the castle, in its one-line description, or in the summary of what visitors said in Google reviews. It reaches the water list only when one of those sentences names the moat and the water in the same breath, which is why a castle can be missing from that list while its moat is full: the test is what the record says, not what is true of every site. The count, the split, the ranking and every figure in the questions below are computed from the roll each time the site is built.
Check before you travel
Moats are drained for conservation and refilled again, and the bridge across one is the part of a castle most likely to be closed for repair. Nunney's has been shut for structural work with no reopening date on file, so the visit there is a walk around the outside. Opening hours come from Google and can lag a seasonal change. Each entry links to that castle's own page here, which carries the operator's link.
Questions people ask
Which UK castles still have water in the moat?
On 8 of the 21 moated castles on The Castle Rolls, the evidence on file names water in the moat: Leeds Castle, Caerphilly Castle, Bodiam Castle, Nunney Castle, Duffus Castle, White Castle, Whittington Castle and Baconsthorpe Castle. Each entry on this page quotes the sentence it comes from, so the claim can be checked rather than taken on trust.
How many moated castles are there in the UK?
21 of the 432 castles on this roll are recorded as moated, split 14 in England, 4 in Wales and 3 in Scotland. That is a count of this roll rather than a national total: moated manor houses and earthwork moat sites run into the thousands across Britain, and most were never castles.
Which is the best moated castle to visit?
By the review-weighted score used across this site, Hever Castle leads the moated castles at 4.8 stars from 13,800 Google reviews. Across all 21 moated castles with a rating the average is 4.6, from 79,162 reviews between them, against a national average of 4.50 across the whole roll.
Can you visit a moated castle for free?
8 of the 21 are open-access sites with no ticket and no booking: Baconsthorpe Castle, Bolingbroke Castle, Bramber Castle, Castle Acre Castle and Bailey Gate, Duffus Castle, Weeting Castle, White Castle and Whittington Castle. The rest are staffed or ticketed, and a few open only on limited days.
Can you reach a moated castle by train?
4 of the 21 sit within 1.5 miles of a railway station, which is the walkable end of the list: Caerphilly Castle (Caerphilly, 0.3 miles), Hever Castle (Hever, 0.9 miles), Leeds Castle (Hollingbourne, 1.1 miles), Weeting Castle (Brandon, 1.2 miles). Straight-line distances, so the walk on the ground is longer than the figure.
Why did castles have moats?
To stop the attackers digging rather than the attackers wading. A tunnel driven under a wall to collapse it was the most reliable way to take a castle, and a wet ditch made that impossible. The full answer, including what it cost to dam a valley for one, is in the moats guide on this site.