What stands today is not the medieval castle of legend but a 17th-century ducal mansion, built after Parliament demolished the original fortress at the end of the English Civil War. The William and Mary house sits dramatically on Castle Rock, the sandstone bluff that rises above the south-west edge of the city, and now serves as the city's main museum and art gallery — a recent £30 million refit reopened it in 2021 with the Robin Hood story, Nottingham's industrial history, and a fine ceramics collection.
The real interest is underneath. Mortimer's Hole, a 100-metre passage cut diagonally through the rock from the cliff face up to the castle, is open by guided tour and is genuinely atmospheric. The terraces outside give the best view in the city, looking south across the Trent valley. The Robin Hood statue at the gatehouse is, inevitably, the most-photographed object in Nottingham.