What Is The Smallest Castle In The World?

The smallest castle in the world is much smaller than the average person believes and located in an unusual part of the U.K. It’s intriguing! 

The smallest castle in the world is called Molly’s Castle. The locals are also calling it “Molly’s lodge”. This castle is only 800 square feet of interior space smaller than standard British bungalows and cottages. It’s so tiny that it only has one bedroom, bathroom, compact kitchen, living room, and dining room. 

Molly’s castle is truly remarkable; to know more about it, keep reading further. 

Where is the smallest castle?

The tiniest castle in the world is situated in the Costwolds. If you’re not familiar with the Cotswolds, it is an incredibly picturesque area in the southwest of England. 

We say picturesque as it’s home to rolling hills, meadows, and U.K. valley. But most importantly, it holds the world’s most miniature castle!

Molly’s castle was initially constructed in the 1830s by a famous British architect called Edward Blore. 

This man was not just any architect, though; he also was recruited to finish the extensions for the royal residence of Buckingham Palace later in the 1840s for Queen Victoria.

 In a stunning gothic revival build, he also helped design the beautiful government office in Sydney, Australia. 

The world’s smallest castle was commonly kept as a guesthouse for noblemen back in the 1800s. It later got made into a deer hunting property on Weston Park Estate. 

Today Molly’s Castle stands as a grade II listed building and is a fully functional home. 

Smallest Castle in Europe 

If you’re travelling around Europe and want to look for the smallest castle, you will have to pay a visit to Hermit’s Castle on the north coast of Scotland.

 It’s situated on the western headland of Scotland in a settlement called Achmelvich. It sits on top of Helmets rock overlooking gorgeous turquoise blue seas and white sands.

The reason it’s the smallest castle in all of Europe is that it covers less than 10 square meters of area. Due to this size, there’s a lot of scepticism about Hermit’s and Molly’s being the smallest in the world. 

Hermit’s castle was constructed in the 1950s by a British architect called David Scott. Rumours have it that the architect created this castle as he wanted to escape the burdens of modern life, so he headed to a remote part of Scotland. 

The castle was built in the brutalist style consisting of small windows, storage shelves, a bed, and a hearth with a chimney. Ironically the concrete structure wasn’t satisfying for its architect, and he abandoned it after one weekend of staying in it. 

During the 1970s, this castle got vandalized where someone removed the windows and door. As a result, today, the castle only has a concrete shell remaining. 

Smallest Palace in World 

When you imagine Russia, you think of grand places, rich interiors, and noblemen and women. But, on the contrary, a famous Russian Tsar (King) known as Peter had a cabin commonly referred to as the world’s smallest palace.

The story of it is pretty amazing.

This famous Tsar helped capture a Swedish fortress in Neva River during 1703. Following this, he decided to build a city around the castle. After some time making it, he decided to give it the name of St Petersberg, which became the go-to place in Russia. 

While the city was spectacular, he needed his residence. So Peter had a cabin built in three days which sat on the banks of the Neva River.

If you visit the cabin today, it may look like a log cabin and look tiny, covering 710 square feet. However, inside, it boasts traditional and regal Deutsch and Russian architecture design, making it no ordinary cabin and more like a palace.  

This building looks royal by having the wooden walls painted with red oil to look like brick. Similarly, it contains no fireplaces or chimneys as its sole purpose was to be used in warm weather. 

Later on, this cabin got renovated in the 1840s by Nicholas I converting the bedroom into a chapel and adding iron rails.

What’s the biggest castle in the world?

If you want to travel to the largest castle in the world, then by land alone, it’s Malbork Castle on the banks of the Nogat River in Poland. 

This castle is so big it was built across a site of 1,539,239 square feet! It was built in the 13th century, and today, it stands as a UNESCO World Heritage site. 

The castle is a typical medieval fortress, and back in the 14th century, it once stood as the world’s largest brick castle. The purpose of this castle was to strengthen the control of the Teutonic Order. 

It was also the largest fortified building in Europe and nearly took half a century to convert it from a house to a castle.

Today you can visit Malbork castle, and it’s one of Poland’s most popular tourist attractions. The best time of year to visit this castle is during early fall. 

There’s plenty of stuff to do at Malbork castle; in addition to touring it, you can dress up in costume, explore the gardens, and more. On average, it takes around 4 hours to view the castle.

Final thoughts

While we’ve been talking about the smallest castle in the world, it’s essential to know that the ancestors didn’t build these castles to be small. Instead, historically castles have been made large to serve as a big defence structure to protect the land and buildings they ruled. 

Typically large castles allowed those who inhabited them to attack from different sides.

 The small castles you see today were still built for this purpose, but the reason they were small was often due to the lack of funds or scarce resources available at the time. 

Plus, many knights moved out of their small homes into slightly bigger fortified castles as a form of social mobility.

If you are enjoying articles about castles, we have more for you!

Here at castle tourist, you can find out whats is the tallest, strongest or biggest castle in the world. Also, why do castles have dungeons, turrets, moats or portcullises?