Four miles south of Wolferton, Castle Rising is one of the best-preserved Norman keeps in England. Built around 1138 by William d'Aubigny for his new bride, the widowed queen Adeliza of Louvain, it later became the prison-palace of the disgraced Queen Isabella, mother of Edward III, who spent the last decades of her life here in dignified exile after the murder of her husband Edward II.
The keep stands inside a vast ring of earthwork ramparts and is open to walk through — staircases, fireplaces, and the great hall all survive. The village around it, with its Trinity Hospital almshouses and ancient stone bridge, is one of the prettiest in west Norfolk.