Havng grown up in Rutland and always loved Oakham Castle, my husband and I were married here in 2011. Don't expect turrets and ramparts but this is a very special place! What remains of Oakham Castle is a beautiful 12th century hall housing an enormous collection of horseshoes (the county symbol) given by visiting royalty and aristocracy over the centuries.

This title is overused , but it`s true in this case .
The great hall is virtually all that is left but it is so fascinating to investigate the donors of all the horse shoes around the walls .
We loved walking around the meadow looking at the site of former walls and buildings .
Part of the charm of the castle is that it is in the centre ( nearly ) of town tucked away behind the church and is a green oasis despite this .

We popped in here when there was a craft market on, but you can still see all of the horseshoes around teh walls and the laminated leaflet that you are given on entering is very interesting to read.
The horseshoes themselves were not as I had expected, they were much larger, grander and decorated than standard horseshoes (I did wonder what the fuss was about to be honest) and we spent a good 15 minutes just wandering round looking at the names.
I'm not sure you could spend much longer than that and the outside space would be good for kids to rund around on a bit (quite lumpy bumpy), but it is not somewhere to spend a long time.
Having said that, we enjoyed it and i'm glad we went.

It's more a hall than a castle. Very disappointed on approach but free and it killed 15 minutes in a town devoid of anything.