Winterfell said:Winterfell is a huge castle complex spanning several acres and protected by two massive walls. There is a village outside, the winter town. Winterfell has been built around an ancient godswood and over natural hot springs. The water is piped through walls and chambers to heat them, making Winterfell more comfortable than other castles during the harsh northern winters.
Inside the walls, the complex is composed of dozens of courtyards and small open spaces. Weapons training and practice take place in those yards. The inner ward is a second, much older open space in the castle where archery practice takes place. It is located next to the broken tower. Inside Winterfell stands the inner castle, which contains the Great Keep and the Great Hall.
Riverrun said:Riverrun is a strong three-sided castle, although not especially large. It is a tenth the size of Harrenhal. Riverrun is bordered on the north by the Tumblestone and on the south by the Red Fork, while on the west a third side faces a massive man-made ditch. In time of danger the sluice gates can be opened to fill a wide moat and leave the castle surrounded on all three sides by water, turning Riverrun into an island and leaving it practically unassailable. It commands a view of many leagues.
Eyrie said:The Eyrie is the smallest of the great castles. The castle is made of fine white stone. Its seven slim, white towers are bunched tightly together and can hold up to five hundred men. The waterfall known as Alyssa's Tears can be heard from the Eyrie, and falcons fly near the castle.
The Eyrie lacks stables, smithys, and kennels, but its granary is as large as those found in much larger castles, like Winterfell. The Eyrie also contains a sept. The castle's household guard wear sky-blue cloaks.
Pyke said:Ancient Pyke was originally built on a cliff jutting out into the sea, but over time the cliff has eroded, leaving the castle's keeps and towers standing on three barren islands and a dozen small stacks of rock, surrounded by water. The towers are connected by swaying rope bridges. The keep, its towers, and walls are made of the same grey-black stone of which the rest of the island is composed. In the thousands of years the castle has stood, it has become covered with green lichen. Since there is no safe anchorage at Pyke, ships sail to nearby Lordsport.
A curtain wall encloses the headland of fifty acres and the cliffs around the foot of the wide stone bridge which extend out to the largest islet. The stables, kennels and livestock are located on the headland. The Great Keep, the Kitchen Keep, and the Guest Keep each sit on their own islands. Towers and outbuildings are located on stacks beyond them, linked to each other by covered archways where the pillars stood close and by long, swaying walks of wood and rope when they did not.
Casterly Rock said:Casterly Rock is carved out of a colossal stone hill beside the Sunset Sea. It is popularly believed to resemble a lion in repose at sunset.
The Casterlys of antiquity built a ringfort on the peak, and as millenia have passed its natural defenses have been expanded with walls, gates, and watchtowers. The base of the Rock contains large sea-carved caverns. The stone has been mined for thousands of years, so there are hundreds of mineshafts in the depths of the Rock, as well as yet untouched gold veins.
The Rock has been measured at three times the height of the Wall or the Hightower of Oldtown. It is almost two leagues long from west to east, and contains tunnels, dungeons, storerooms, barracks, halls, stables, stairways, courtyards, balconies, and gardens. In the bowels of the Rock are rooms where caged lions were once kept, cells for the worst prisoners, as well as oubliettes so small that a man cannot even sit down in one. The castle contains a sept.
The Lion's Mouth, the main entry to Casterly Rock, is an enormous natural cavern reaching two hundred feet high. Its steps are now wide enough for twenty riders. Its port has docks, wharves, and shipyards and is accessible by longships and cogs. From below the Rock thunder can be heard, where the sea comes in.
Highgarden said:Highgarden is located on a broad verdant hill overlooking the Mander. The castle is surrounded by three rings of white stone whose crenellated curtain walls increase in height. Between the outer and middle walls is a famous briar labyrinth which serves to entertain as well as slow invaders. The oldest towers, squat and square, date from the Age of Heroes. Newer towers are tall and slender, round fortifications dating from after the coming of the Andals.
The castle sept, which has rows of stained-glass windows honoring Garth Greenhand and the Seven, is matched only by the Great Sept of Baelor and the Starry Sept. The castle's godswood contains three weirwoods known as the Three Singers. The palatial keep is decorated with statues and colonnades. Also within Highgarden's walls are groves, fountains, and courtyards. The castle's structures are covered in ivy, grapes, and climbing roses.
Highgarden is filled with flowers, singers, pipers, fiddlers and harpers. The stables have a fine selection of horseflesh, and there are pleasure boats to sail along the Mander. There are fields of golden roses that stretch as far as the eye can see.
Red Keep said:The Red Keep is made of pale red stone and overlooks the mouth of the Blackwater Rush. The Red Keep has seven massive drum-towers crowned with iron ramparts. The castle is smaller than Winterfell[3] and is patrolled by gold cloaks. Much of the Red Keep is connected underground.
Massive curtain walls surround the castle, with nests and crenelations for archers. Thick stone parapets, some four feet high, protect the outer edge of the wall ramparts, where the heads of traitors are traditionally placed on iron spikes between the crenels at the gatehouse. The walls have great bronze gates and portcullises, with narrow postern doors nearby. The castle also has great cornerforts. The immense barbican has a cobbled square in front of it. Behind the walls are small inner yards, vaulted halls, covered bridges, barracks of the City Watch of King's Landing, dungeons, granaries, kennels, and stables.
Storm's End said:Storm's End is surrounded by a massive outer curtain wall, one hundred feet high and forty feet thick on its thinnest side and nearly eighty feet thick on its seaward side. It is composed of a double course of pale grey stone with an inner core of sand and rubble. The wall is smooth and curving, the stones so well placed and so perfectly fit together that the wind can find no purchase. On the seaward side, there is a one hundred fifty foot drop below the wall into the sea. There is no safe anchorage by the castle. The curtain wall protects the castle's kitchens, stables, and yard.
Storm's End has only one tower, a colossal drum tower crowned with formidable battlements, making it look like a huge, spiked fist thrusting towards the sky from afar. The tower is so large that it comfortably contains the granary, barracks, armory, feast hall, and lord's chambers all at once. The main hall of the castle is called the Round Hall. The maester's cell and the rookery are located at the top of the tower, which is windowless on the side facing the sea.
The seaward side of the castle stands upon Durran's Point, a high white cliff overlooking the sea. There is a watery passage through a cavern that leads beneath the castle, protected by a portcullis, bars, and murder holes.
Sunspear said:Sunspear is a walled settlement, protected by three massive Winding Walls, encircling one another and containing miles of narrow alleys, hidden courts, and noisy bazaars. The Threefold Gate, where the gates are lined up one behind the other, avoids the labyrinth, instead allowing straight passage on a brick path to the Old Palace.
One of Sunspear's chief structures is the original stronghold of House Martell, the Sandship, which is a large, ugly, dun-colored building that looks like a dromond. Over time, towers in Rhoynish fashion sprung up around the keep. Two other chief structures are the tall and slender Spear Tower and the great, domed Tower of the Sun. The Spear Tower is a hundred and a half feet high, and can house noble prisoners. In the Tower of the Sun, the high seats of the Prince of Dorne can be found: two twin seats, one with the Martell spear inlaid in gold upon its back, the other bearing the blazing Rhoynish sun. These two towers are the first things visitors see when they arrive at Sunspear, whether by land or by sea.
