Secrets of Great British Castles Episode Rating Graph

Edinburgh's handsome hilltop bastion is Scotland's most popular paid tourist attraction, but it also packs some formidable defences.

Dan Jones visits the heart of the English countryside to explore Arundel Castle and the dramatic history of the Earls of Arundel.

Today Warwick Castle is a popular tourist attraction, but for centuries its walls echoed with the sounds of betrayal, bloodshed, murder and financial ruin. Dan Jones reveals the turbulent history which took place within the well-preserved walls of this imposing castle and the tales of the earls of Warwick who lived there.

Dan Jones visits Lancaster Castle to explore its grisly history of crime and punishment, including the infamous Lancashire Witches trials and the martyrdom of the Jesuit priest Saint Edmund Arrowsmith.

Perched high on a volcanic crag overlooking the River Forth, Stirling has long been one of the most strategically important castles in Britain. Guarding the gateway to the Highlands, its battle-scarred walls have witnessed savagery and chivalry, intrigue, alchemy, adultery and murder. With the aid of location filming, aerial shots and dramatic reconstructions, Dan Jones examines the history of this stronghold and relates the stories of some of the powerful characters who have owned it over the centuries.

In medieval England, the North was ruled from York. Dan Jones explores the history of its castle, from the Viking Jorvik and the Normans, through the dark days of the anti-Jewish pogrom and the imprisonment of the Knights Templar, to one of its most colourful inmates - the legendary highwayman Dick Turpin.

Dan Jones explores the history of Carrickfergus Castle in Co Antrim, one of the most ancient castles in Northern Ireland and a stronghold key to understanding the tempestuous relationship between Britain and Ireland. Dan travels to Rathlin island, where he reveals how hundreds of women and children were massacred in the name of Elizabeth I, and visits the tomb of former governor Arthur Chichester, who began a new colonization strategy using scorched earth tactics and laid waste to much of the land surrounding the town.

Historian Dan Jones explores the turbulent history of one of Britain's most famous castles, Caernarfon. Dan is in the heart of Snowdonia exploring a stronghold built not only as an impenetrable fortress but also as a lavish royal palace fit for a fairytale - Caernarfon Castle.