posted 07-04-2003 05:26 AM            

Last part of the 'finest' series where Professor Richard Holmes presents the British castles voted by the public to be our 10 finest examples.

Includes Windsor, Alnwick (Harry Potter) and the Tower of London. The top three are a secret until tonight.

posted 07-05-2003 07:06 AM            

Honourable mentions to Stirling and Dover then.
10 Conwy
9 Caernarfon
8 Alnwick
7 Bodiam
6 Windsor
5 Tower of London
4 Eileen Donan
3 Tintagel
2 Edinburgh
1 Warwick

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed the programme - I especially enjoyed the enthusiasm of some of the guest presenters, Magnus Magnason was absolutly buzzing at Edinburgh Castle.

As for the results? Hmm - I guess a better title for the programme would have been Britain's Best known/most popular castles. I think this was especially reinforced by the inclusion of:

Eileen Donan (an imaginative recreation),

Tintagel (presumably because of its mythalogical connections - instead of airtime being given to Arthurian tosh, it would've been nice to get some real factual information)

Bodiam (not really a castle at all from a defensive perspecive - still a delightful building though).

In fairness, the programme did point out this information.

Now Warwick, Conwy and Caernarfon - feel these truly deserved their places as Britain's finest. The others too are amongst my favourites, but I'm sure they'ed have been displaced by other examples if the list was wholy down to me - takes all sorts though!