We thoroughly enjoyed all of these and felt that each one was unique enough to be worth visiting.
This list is not comprehensive and not necessarily the best, just the ones we visited on our one week road trip. Unlike the restored castles that are constantly under construction, the beauty of decay takes over and adds a life of its own to these abandoned structures. You can climb (and with the stairs rotted away sometimes you have to) and wander at your own risk, unhindered by signs or fences.
#LORD OF RINGS ABANDONED CASTLE FREE#
Most of these castles are just there, free to enter, and begging to be explored. However, I fell in love with abandoned castles on our trip to Ireland. Balin and the rest of his kin were slain by Sauron's monsters a few years after returning.I generally don’t have the attention span for museums and, while there are exceptions, I feel like most restored castles are along that same vein. Khazad-dûm was only populated by Dwarves once more when Balin, one of Thorin Oakenshield's company in The Hobbit, returned to Moria to reclaim it as they had with Erebor, but it was not to be. Sauron then started sending troops of Orcs and Cave-trolls to populate the halls of Khazad-dûm to make it a stronghold of his own. Though the Dwarves tried to hold on to their home, they were eventually forced to retreat, and Khazad-dûm became the dark and empty shell that would eventually come to be known as Moria, or the Black Pit. The Balrog wrought destruction on Khazad-dûm and killed King Durin IV. The Dwarves dug too deeply in their search for mithril and unearthed a dreadfully evil creature from the depths of the mountain: one of Morgoth's Balrogs, the same one that Gandalf barely managed to defeat in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. In contrast to their shrinking population, however, the Dwarves' treasure only continued to grow as they mined ever deeper for mithril, the same precious metal that saved Frodo's life in The Fellowship of the Ring over 1000 years later. Although they were able to hold him back due to their great numbers and the strength of their fortress, their community still eventually diminished. Sauron had been sending his forces to try and conquer the Dwarves' stronghold. Though it would take some time, Sauron would eventually get his wish, not solely due to his power and his army of Orcs, but because of the Dwarves' own greed as well.Īt the start of Middle-earth's Third Age, the Dwarven population of Khazad-dûm was starting to dwindle. Sauron harbored hatred for Khazad-dûm ever since and planned to overthrow Durin's folk at every turn. After the battle, the Dwarves retreated into their stronghold and shut the gates, closing themselves off from the outside world. Related: What's In Durin's Box In The Rings Of Power Episode 2?Īs a result of this long-lasting friendship, the remaining Elves of Eregion were saved by Durin III when he sent an army to attack Sauron's forces during the War of the Elves and Sauron near the end of the Second Age. These are the same doors that the Fellowship uses to gain access to Moria in The Fellowship of the Ring. Elven Lord Celebrimbor became close friends with Narvi, one of the Dwarves' great craftsmen, and together they created the West-gate of Khazad-dûm, otherwise known as the Doors of Durin. Tolkien's writings, a friendship grew between the Elves and the Dwarves there, a storyline which has already been teased in The Rings of Power. An important detail revealed in The Rings of Power's second episode shows that the Elven realm of Eregion and Khazad-dûm lay very close to one another.
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