The site occupies a commanding position on a natural promontory known as "Castle Rock" which dominates the city skyline, with cliffs 130 feet (40 m) high to the south and west.

Little of the original castle survives other than the gatehouse and parts of the ramparts, but sufficient portions remain to give an impression of the layout of the site.

After a £30 million restoration from 2018, running of the site was undertaken by independent charitable Nottingham Castle Trust with reopening on 21 June 2022.

[4] In March 1194, a historic battle took place at Nottingham Castle, part of the returned King Richard's campaign to put down the rebellion of Prince John.

[5] Shortly before his 18th birthday, King Edward III, with the help of a few trusted companions led by Sir William Montagu, staged a coup d'état at Nottingham Castle (19 October 1330) against his mother Isabella of France, and her lover, Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March.

[6] These events seem to be echoed in an interpolation made to a metrical chronicle in around 1331, which describes the caves beneath the castle as having been carved out by Lancelot in his attempts to hide Guinevere from King Arthur following their adulterous affair.

In 1376 Peter de la Mare, speaker of the House of Commons, was confined in Nottingham Castle for having "taken unwarrantable liberties with the name of Alice Perrers, mistress of the king".

[12]In 1536, the Earl of Rutland had the castle reinforced with a new drawbridge and its garrison increased from a few dozen men to a few hundred in response to the Pilgrimage of Grace.

A short time following the outbreak of the English Civil War, the castle was already in a semi-ruined state after a number of skirmishes occurred on the site.

At the start of the Civil War, in August 1642, Charles I chose Nottingham as the rallying point for his armies, but soon after he departed, the castle rock was made defensible and held by the Parliamentarians.

In 1648 the Royalist commander Marmaduke Langdale, fleeing after defeat in the Battle of Preston, was captured and held in Nottingham Castle, but he managed to escape and make his way to Europe.

[18] However, the mansion lost its appeal to the later dukes with the coming of the Industrial Revolution, which left Nottingham with the reputation of having the worst slums in the British Empire outside India.

The original exterior stairs on the eastern façade of the mansion were subsequently demolished to create a parade ground for the Robin Hood Rifles.

[19][20] The mansion remained a derelict shell until it was restored in 1875 by Thomas Chambers Hine, and opened in 1878 by the Prince of Wales, (later King Edward VII) as Nottingham Castle Museum,[21] the first municipal art gallery in the UK outside London.

[24] On Christmas Day 1996 a landslip, caused by a leaking water main, led to 80 tonnes of earth and retaining wall from the Restoration terrace next to the mansion falling to the bottom of the Castle Rock.

[26] A drawing of the Ducal Mansion appeared on millions of packets of rolling tobacco and cigarettes made by John Player & Sons, a Nottingham firm.

This led the novelist Ian Fleming to refer to "that extraordinary trademark of a dolls house swimming in chocolate fudge with Nottingham Castle written underneath" in Thunderball, in the knowledge that his British readers would be familiar with the image.

A new visitor centre was created together with exhibition galleries, interactive displays, a children's adventure area in the old castle moat themed on Robin Hood's era and a showcase of local industries including Nottingham Lace.

The trust said that the failure was due to the covid pandemic in the UK from 2020, the later financial crisis, and the tripling of energy costs going into the quietest trading period of the year.

[45] Additionally, a non-charitable limited company providing services within the grounds was part of the insolvency,[46] and all of the staff were made redundant by 30 November 2022.