Kenilworth is a small Warwickshire town dominated by the red sandstone ruins of Kenilworth Castle, one of the grandest fortified sites in England. The castle was a royal stronghold for centuries before Elizabeth I gave it to her favourite Robert Dudley, who transformed part of it into an extravagant Elizabethan pleasure palace to entertain the queen. The ruins are now managed by English Heritage and the restored Elizabethan Garden is worth seeing.
The town itself is pleasant but modest — a high street of independent shops, a couple of good pubs, and Abbey Fields park where the remains of a twelfth-century Augustinian priory stand in open meadow. Kenilworth is easily visited as a day trip from Warwick or Coventry, both just a few miles away.