Cold. If you walk through the ancient buildings in Europe that are made of thick stone, they are made of cold stone. They are thick, but there is no insulation or asbestos or piping or air conditioning within all that stone. When you walk through them, you also get the awesome nostalgia that these carpets have been there for hundreds of years before you were born, and there have been peasants and noblemen wiping their feet where you are. However, the castles were quite luxurious, for their time, and even now. They are all the more so when you consider all of this was before the industrial revolution. Lace was handmade. There were probably plenty of fabrics to keep warm. There were millions of servants to keep everything spotless. Also there were a lot of worn out and cramped spots from erosion.
Maybe you're thinking more of a palace than a castle? Palaces were much more—well—palatial. Not built to be a fortress so much as a mansion. Try googling for palaces and get some ideas. But I think if you want to avoid the stereotypes a palace might be what you're looking for. I can't tell if the story is set in the contemporary world or an ancient one. If contemporary the palace would be outfitted with all the modern conveniences that allow us to live in far greater comfort and luxury than the greatest kings and emperors of the past. No matter how much wealth they had, they couldn't even dream of air conditioning, central heating, hot and cold running water without dysentery or other diseases in it. Electricity, television, movies, computers, cell phones, the internet, airplanes, modern hospitals and surgery and dentistry. Slavery illegal in most of the world—instead we voluntarily serve others temporarily for pay and call it having a job. A glimpse into the ordinary lives we live today would be like the wonders of the most fabulous fairy tales coming alive for even the greatest monarchs of the past. Maybe going a bit off topic, but relevant to the story idea I think. At least I would bring it up if I were writing it.
I mean, you could have hot clean water in the past. Indeed, if you were worried about whether your source was unclean, like the Thames became, you could boil it, so hot water was the safest kind. Therefore hot water was in common use, although drawing a full hot bath was tedious enough (and required a large enough amount of water) that it was considered a luxury. And surgery and dentistry did exist in some form for a long time, just more limited in knowledge and tech. But your point is generally valid.
There are a lot of wrong ideas about castles. As someone already pointed out they were generally painted so not gray as we generally see them now. It also matters if you need the castle to be historically accurate. If so what period, because castle architecture changed drastically over the centuries. What nation? Are you assuming it should be English or some other nation because there were also national differences?
First off, contrary to popular opinion, castles were not grey; we need to remember that castles were owned by nobility therefore the outside of the castle would be whitewashed and the interior would be painted with bright colors, if the lord of the castle was on the "poorer" side then maybe only the main rooms would be painted and the rest whitewashed. Don't use torches inside, torches burn bright but they also burn fast and they produce a lot of ashes and smoke (and embers, castles had timber on the floor and ceiling and a lot of the furniture was flammable), because of this rushlights and candles were the name of the game; torches would be used outside and maybe on a feast, and they are going to look more like a staff with a massive candle than an archetypical torch. Spoiler Another thing to bear in mind is that castles are a type of building that serves both military (easy to defend) and residential purposes (serves as a house for a noble family), if the building is purely military it would be a fort and if is only residential it would be a manor or a palace. As I just said castles were built to be easy to defend, if the castle has a wall you are unlikely to find a window on the first two floors, and if it doesn't you're just not going to find a window (the little "windows" you see in castles are called arrowslits); if the castle has an inner garden then you could find windows pointing towards it (if enemy soldiers are able to get to an inner garden you have bigger worries than just a couple of windows). If the castle has a wall the people in your story will use the term castle to refer to the entire place and keep to refer to the main building, the space between a wall and the keep is called a bailey. Don't just put a castle on an open plain, if you are going to use a plain at the very least dig a moat around it (maybe fill it with water) but preferably you want a hill or some other naturally defensible terrain. Info that I'd recommend you to research if you are going to attack/defend the castle in your story: *Battlement *Machicolation *Merlon *Arrowslit *Crenel *Gatehouse *Portcullis *Murderhole *Drawbridge *Wicket gate *Turret Edit The image doesn't load, here is the link to it https://qph.fs.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-c67fe4f4d99572164be333f7de49fa4a.webp
By whatever Lord above, how did I miss this thread? I pride myself as the local castle fanatic and have visited around 50 different ones across Europe thus far. Naturally, my story involves /all sorts of castles/. First, to address some misconceptions: Wholly up to personal style. There's quite a few castles I visited that were "grey / stone-y" originally as well, simply because they were fortifications. One of the prime relics we have from medieval era is the Marksburg, which is a 12th century castle that was never destroyed (except for a brief artillery bombardment by American troops) and remains in pristine, genuine condition. The interior of the Marksburg tells a lot about what medieval castles looked like. It might look "plain" and "Spartan" for those more familiar with castles re-furbished in the 19th century, but it is fascinating in its own right. Here's pictures one two three. It's got plaster, but not all parts. The entryway is very rustic natural stone (perhaps better visible here) because so many horses passed through they didn't really care paving it & repairing the pavement every other month. And now's for my cents to anyone who happens upon this thread and seeks the takes of a castle-fanatic. NOTE: This info pertains HIGH MIDDLE AGES and the RENAISSANCE because I'm largely ignorant of pre-Otto times. You should first determine the purpose of the castle you want to describe. Get into the shoes of your people and trace the castle's history a bit. Think why some fortification was initially built, how it was expanded, who owns it, etc. Contrary to some notes above, no castle was ever built to be infinitely multi-functional (I'll get to that later). (Pre-amble on a siege: a siege isn't a must, neither is it a should. Sieges are a cost-worth decision on the attacker's side; often a full siege of a castle was too expensive compared to its worth and therefore a castle was simply surrounded by some troops who then left when the war was over.) Lookout castles are the most common ones. These are most frequent in central Europe; their purpose was plain-cut: they housed no permanent lord or noble family, they were garrisoned with a medium amount of troops under a captain. The captain usually had free reign to maintain the castle from the collection of tolls nearby. The garrison of these castles sallied forth to meet raiding warbands or enemy garrisons, in what we call "small war". The garrisons of these castles seldom engaged in full scale war, and these castles were often not besieged because they weren't worth much and couldn't house large armies (that could harass an attacker's supply routes efficiently). In a full scare war, the garrisons were often emptied and diverted into fortress castles. Over time, lookout castles took up their side-job (toll collection) as their primary purpose; this meant that the castle defenses were removed / disassembled further and toll towers were erected closer to the roads they taxed. Remember that there usually was a fortress-castle for 2-5 lookout castles in a region for the case of a war. A good example for this is castle Bran in Transylvania (to which the fortress is the less-known Rasnov castle), the Marksburg and almost all other castles along the river Rhine. The Rhine region also has a WHOLE BUNCH OF toll towers. Just look at this! And this. Then this TOLL CASTLE in the Rhine proper! They built a castle, then a tower to collect toll better, then figured boats could just skip past, so why not build a toll tower for boats in the Rhine? Motte-and-bailey castles are also perfect examples for lookouts; especially so since where a fortress was needed, the bailey was expanded (like Windsor, Durham, Warwick). Fortress castles were less frequent and they were distinguished by a HUGE courtyard and more "serious" defenses. The purpose of the courtyard was to allow peasants from nearby villages and farms to take shelter during a war or a large-scale raid, as well as to be able to house an army proper. Fortresses are the ones with turrets, towers, bastions, multiple layers of walls and so on. They were made to say "You will pay a HUGE price to siege this, bud" and because they were ALL built to be able to house an army, they had to be besieged and captured. HISTORY BREAK: fortresses were most frequent in places where raids or uprisings were feared to be so common or so powerful that the local nobility didn't trust mere lookouts and outposts to handle them. In other words: Britain! Imagine you need to stuff your army into a "castle". Would you choose a lookout like the Marksburg, or a fortress like Warwick castle or Edinburgh? Warwick castle actually has a fascinating exhibition on this very topic called "Kingmaker" and how the castle maintained Richard Neville's army in it, with food, blacksmiths, servants and all. If you look back at the aerial view of Rasnov fortress, you'll also see the same; its sheer size make its courtyard a "village" more than just a yard. Another note: fortresses were also built by the Church; after all, churches and cathedrals were their seat of power and wealthy clergymen often commissioned walls & fortifications around their seats. This in turn created places where villages could take refuge during a raid, very close to home. An extremely fascinating example is Biertan in Transylvania which even had a steel-barred safe room for treasures of the Church & the villagers. Seats of power where those castles that served as, well, seats to a noble family and therefore also had to fulfill two additional roles: they had to be powerful symbols of power to project a family's influence, and they had to accommodate the family for permanent living as well as allow gatherings and feasts to be held. Both fortresses and lookouts could be used for temporary living; a noble family traveled a lot and the small lookouts made perfect locations for spending a couple days between travels. You will recognise a seat of power because they will be more decorated, better kept and better maintained. They can also often be castles that don't quite fulfill any other role, and are found in strange locations that are less suited for defense. A good example is castle Eltz that housed the great Eltz family and their three cadet branches later on - some of whom became Archbishops and great courtiers in the Empire. Look at that castle; it is clear that it might have originally been a fortification (it was; the hind tower was the original lookout), but developed into a seat of power that grew and grew in size as the family prospered until the point you couldn't really imagine it withstand a proper siege or assault. Outworks and ruins were also frequent and still used. Just because a castle is in complete ruins does not means that it's wholly useless! Ruins were used by mercenaries, warbands, raiders or even lords of the realm if they didn't have anywhere else to camp with their army or their court. When using the term "outwork" I refer to a ruined part of an actively-maintained castle. Eltz in particular has a series of ruined outworks with records from the single siege the castle endured writing they were dusted off, repaired, used, then left to rot again when no longer needed. You can see the outworks on this picture. I must also note that G.R.R.M. made quite a good scene when the Lannister army camped in the ruins of Harrenhal, or when the Hobbits camped in Weathertop. The splinter & split caused by artillery: As I had stated before, no castle was hyper-functional in all its purposes. When artillery came around (and this was WAY earlier than people tend to think; this came around a hundred years before this) a split happened; the fortifications required to endure long-term artillery barrage during a siege were far too expensive to be built around lookouts. At the same time, army size increased drastically and fortifications had to grow in size to accommodate more and more troops. As such, the four "archetypes" of castles above changed so: - Lookouts were abandoned, often left to rot or repurposed by their owners. They became vacation homes, storage deposits, small outposts, hunting lodges, etc. Surviving lookouts were purchased in the 19th century when medieval stuff became unusually fashionable and they were mostly re-built as fake castles. - Fortresses were abandoned or re-built in the early-modern style. Much bigger with modern fortification principles. Sometimes a fortress was left standing and was instead surrounded by a modern wall. Good examples for this come from the Kingdom of Hungary where a whole bunch of fortresses had to be modernised at a very urgent deadline when the southern vassals fell and an Ottoman invasion became a real possibility. A beautiful example is how Eger historically looked; understand it used to be a medieval town fortress but when the southern borders fell the town scrambled to modernize it as much as they could. - Seats of Power grew in size and splendour because nobility had more and more wealth. Because of this, castles were no longer used and instead more modern palaces were built closer to the main holdings of nobility (their richest cities). Because land still was a commodity, it was quite frequent to see a former castle torn down and a palace built in their place. - Ruins were no longer any useful for anything but rebels and scoundrels, so they continued to decline, fade and crumble. This applies to outworks as well. Castles as a fashion fad: If you think medieval times are too cliché today, imagine 19th century romanticism. It was a time when the most fashionable poets visited crumbling ruins of castles and monasteries to gloom over their existential dread while nobles attended operas about medieval legends, built palaces that looked like medieval castles and had themselves depicted in paintings like if they were medieval kings. This also gave rise to a new form of castle, which I call... "The Fake Castles". These were anachronistic buildings resembling medieval castles on the surface level, but ridden with many issues and clues that clearly differentiate them from genuine castles. There was just SO MANY of these built in the 19th century that most castles you might be familiar with are likely fake castles. Worse, fake castles were most often built on the site of former castles and their ruins; most often lookouts that were abandoned during the renaissance. It pains my heart to imagine the ruins of an abandoned castle that once stood proud and tall. Then an Italian arrives in the company of a pair of fancy-dressed German imperial nobles and points at the old barracks and goes like "hey, this would be so cool as a billiard room for you, m'lord. I'll put WINDOWS all around it." And that's pretty much the story of Domenico Quaglio and the castles Hohenschwangau and Stolzenfels. They look beautiful but the more I look at them the more my internal medieval architect screams. "Why is that curtain wall gate higher than the curtain wall?" "Why are there such large windows all over it?" "Why is there a huge chapel window there that I could just kick in and invade the castle through?" "Why are the fortifications facing the mountain and not the main road?" Gah! Castle life paths: By now you have seen that castles "live" through a life just like we do, transforming in their looks and purpose. That's largely the point that you can highlight in writing, because what a castle used to be and what it is now send a pair of messages that can easily portray the recent history of a realm. A fortress being re-purposed as a seat of power with its outworks decaying shows that the realm has been at peace for long. Many lookouts along the road means lucrative trade going on. But let's look at the paths of a few famous castles so that you can see what I mean. Eltz: Single lookout tower. Expanded with a family home & seat of power. Expanded further when three cadet branches were created. Outworks built & maintained while threat loomed, then abandoned. Castle was never abandoned by owner family so it survived to this day in its "original" state. Restoration works in the 19th century were unique in the way they were conducted with an effort to preserve the original architecture. Hohenschwangau & Neuschwanstein: Lookout castles at both pinnacles. Old Schwanstein castle fell into ruin after it was abandoned. Schwangau castle re-purposed as a seat of power by low nobility. They gradually re-built it and removed the outworks. Castle was sold and abandoned until it was re-discovered in the 19th century by the Bavarian prince. Re-construction as a fake castle ordered for Schwangau. Louis II. then ordered the building of a new fake castle at the old Schwanstein ruins (which became Neuschwanstein). Drachenburg Castle: Drachenfels castle built on pinnacle as a lookout castle. No longer needed in 13th century, abandoned and left to decay. Swedes camped in it during the 30 years war but demolished completely to prevent usage of the ruins and outworks. A 19th century banker loved the area and had a fake castle built. General British castle lifetime: Writing "general" as it applies to most British castles. Warwick, Durham and Windsor included. Built after Norman conquest as lookout in the Motte & Bailey style. Expanded into a fortification proper with additional buildings during the high medieval age. Transformed into a seat of power during the early modern age, with fortifications re-purposed for living & storage, and with outworks left abandoned & decaying. Some features added & reconstruction done to better accommodate modern times. Electricity introduced in the 19th or early 20th century. Buda castle: Likely lookout post on the site (but never found). Permanent fortress built after the 13th century Mongolian invasion, together with dozens of other fortresses in the kingdom. Claimed as a royal seat in 14th century. Outworks abandoned and the keep expanded into a royal residence & seat of power. Fortress expanded into an early-modern fortification by Italian engineers in the 16th century. Royal palace severely damaged during a total of 5 full-scale sieges. A baroque palace built in the 18th century, all outworks & former fortifications left to decay. There is an ongoing effort to restore the outworks. So you can see the most likely & most treaded path was the: Lookout -> Fortress -> Seat of Power -> Palace / Fake castle path. The other two are: Lookout -> Ruins -> decayed / collapsed ruins Lookout -> Ruins -> Decayed / collapsed ruins -> Fake Castle And now for castle features to describe one! With due categories, of course: A Bergfried (or Motte/Tower in Britain) is a single, very tall tower in a lookout castle usually with an open roof or an opening for observation & to see the surroundings. Not to be confused with a Donjon/keep. It's usually too small to house a noble family. A Donjon/Keep is the main building of a fortress that can house a noble family. Most often separated from the rest of the castle through another gate / drawbridge / moat. A turret is a small tower protruding from another fortification. Toilets were in turrets, as we know. But little known is that toilets aren't an easy way into a castle; Marksburg, for example, had a 4'' thick oak door reinforced with steel to its toilet with a strong lock from the castle-side (hope the guards don't lock you into the toilet!). I have seen some pictures depict toilets with shafts that lead to a "gong pit" in the bottom of the castle which is regularly emptied; I don't know how accurate this is because I've never seen one before. A bastion is a protruding part of a wall, potentially elevated slight above the wall. Be careful; sometimes they are referred to as "drum towers" which is a specific form of a bastion. The "face" is the portion of the bastion used for direct fire on the enemy. The "flank" is the portion of the bastion used to protect another tower, bastion or gate. Usually defended from direct attack by an enemy. A terreplein is a flat surface usually on top of a bastion where guns or siege engines can be kept. A tower is ... well, self-explanatory. A chemise is a historical woman's underwear - but also a curtain wall or battlement that surrounds the base of a bastion or a tower. The walk-walk (silly isn'it?), allure or chemin de ronde are the top of a wall where soldiers can stand to shoot or throw stuff. The battlements are the fortifications on the top of the wall (Parapets, machicolation, hoarding, etc). Crenellation is the zig-zag pattern providing extra cover on battlements. The zig-zag pattern of a Crenellation is made up of Merlons (the tall part) and Crenels (the low part). Merlons usually have an arrow slit in them, called an embrasure. A rampart is a wall/battlement created from piling up earth instead of building something from stone. A rondella is a curved curtain wall that protects the entryway into a castle. Built everywhere, but only has a special name in Hungarian. Here's a German fake-castle example (the complex entryway). A parapet is an overhang in a curtain wall or tower, usually with small holes that allow the defenders to shoot or hurl stuff at attackers. If there are no holes and is decorative instead, it is called a corbel. Machicolation is the official term for the "small holes that allow the defenders to shoot or hurl stuff" in a parapet. A barbican is an advance-guard structure that can be a simple gate or a "castle" in its own right. The barbican in Orleans was the latter category, with towers & turrets. Hoarding or Brattice is wooden panels added to a fortification for further reinforcement. Batter is the outwards-sloping part of a castle wall. It helps prevent tunneling, ramming and pushes attackers into a better angle to be shot at. It also helps guide anything thrown or spilled from parapets towards the attackers. Filling or rubble core is what's inside a curtain wall. Walls weren't ever made of big bricks (after all, they were often many metres thick). Imagine a pair of walls made from stone bricks (that were called ashlar) and the inbetween filled with the ... filling. Soil in most cases or for wealthier castle builders a mix of smaller stones and mortar. Plaster / Whitewash is what was used to cover stone walls to protect them from the weather. I am unsure about the historical accuracy of this with regards to medieval times, but it was customary in the 19th century to re-apply whitewash at the onset of spring in order to keep walls clean, tidy and strong. Loops and slits were holes in the Machicolation, parapet or Hoarding through which bowmen could shoot arrows. They were enlarged in the 14th-15th centuries to become cannon ports, through which cannons could be fired. A bartizan is an overhanging turret on a curtain wall. Basically, combine a parapet & a turret and add some arrow slits. An oriel is a decorative bartizan not intended for defensive use. A ditch is a trench dug to prevent access to a wall. A moat is a ditch filled with water. A scarp is a reinforcement of the ditch or moat from the outer side. A counterscarp is a reinforcement from the castle's side. A counterscarp gallery is a battlement behind the counterscarp facing the ditch through slits and embrasures. A precursor to "bunkers". A stockade is a wall made of wooden logs, usually erected as a temporary fortification (and frequently built where a breach was made in the wall). A footbridge is where you cross from one wall to another, or where you cross a ditch or moat. A drawbridge is a footbridge that can be raised. The gate is what you usually have as entryway, big wooden door sometimes reinforced with iron or steel. A portcullis is a vertical-closing gate, usually steel. The portcullis wasn't used to block entrance on its own - it was right behind or ahead of the gate and thus prevented the gate from being breached by adding an extra layer of protection & fortitude. A dormer is a little outcropping in a roof. They were originally put on towers and walls for additional places from where archers could shoot, looking like little turrets. Elaborate and decorated dormers were fashionable in the 19th century, so they tend to be a tell-tale sign of a fake castle. A sally port or postern is a hidden/extra gate that can be completely obstructed but also used to sally out from the castle and attack the besiegers. Bailey / Court / Courtyard is the open inner area of the castle protected by the curtain walls. A castle can have multiple courtyards. A tenaille is a pincer-shaped outwork of an early modern fortification. A retrenchment is a temporary fortification erected behind the first line. Famously used in the great siege of Vienna. A cavalier is a bastion built over a bastion (a further elevated cannon emplacement. The covered way is a early modern fortification element added in front of the Batter in a wall, or above the scarp. Imagine a battlement or walk-walk on ground level. The glacis is the outermost earthwork of an early-modern fortification. It is a continuation of the wall's angle and aims to prevent artillery fire from a distance. A ravelin or demilune is a bastion disconnected from the wall. It was most often triangular. Consider it the early-modern version of the barbican. A counterguard is a ravelin without a battlement on top of it. Additional walls to pad cannon fire. A gorge is a slope leading up to a bastion where guns can be hauled up. And last but not least, for what a castle will have inside its walls: All castles will likely have a smithy, a kitchen, a cellar to stove away goods, stables, a granary and a barracks for soldiers to sleep. A lookout castle or fortress will likely have a series of empty rooms for when the lord spends time in it during travel. Seats of power will have more permanent arrangements. Fortresses are equipped to house armies. This means they've huge kitchens, perhaps multiple ones. They tend to have mills. They will have a much larger stable and tremendous space to store supplies. Fortresses will also have some buildings that "accommodates" an army, used only when the army is there - brothel, tavern, brewery, additional chapels. Freshwater will definitely be available in a castle, from a spring or a well. Eltz got a spring that's so bountiful it was used as running water for cleaning dishes. Seats of power will have a hall decorated in the family's preference and ready to host guests. Contrary to popular belief, not all castles have "great halls". Lookout castles are the prime example; the "great hall" in them is more a larger room with a big enough table for the garrison to gather (actually called "Knights' hall" in German), if there is one at all. In general "Great halls" weren't as great as they are usually portrayed - a huge interior room with BIG arches, mirrors and windows is a tell-tale sign of a fake castle. Look at Marksburg's it's the size of a modern flat's living room. St. George's hall in Windsor is a modern building, a hall more preserving the medieval atmosphere than the baroque banquet hall it used to be. Similarly, the great hall in the Wartburg is a 19th century "Fake castle" addition. The famous Castle Bran actually had none (as it was a lookout castle for German knights). Eltz as a power seat has one the size of Marksburg's, but well-decorated. Durham's Great Hall that brings Harry Potter vibes? It's an 1882 remodelling (though existed before in a less grandiose form). Even the Christ's College great hall (where HP was actually shot) is an 1520s building. See that wooden beam in the middle of Marksburg's Ritterhalle? Yes - that's the reason why the BIG-BIG halls in movies didn't actually exist; people didn't quite have the know-how (and wealth) to build ceilings that wide across. That's why gothic Cathedrals were such a wonder & miracle. Secret doors and tunnels were a thing. In medieval castles they were tunnels and slits to sally out from and attack besiegers. In fake castles (or refurbished ones) they connect the lady's room to the lord's for dubious reasons (to play midnight chess together, likely!). You wouldn't believe but I saw multiple of those; in Hohenschwangau and Bran as well. The floor in castles was either wooden, or covered with hay. None of the marbled floors you see in fantasy. Trash and leftover food was thrown into the hay, cats and dogs picked through it, then it was left there to rot. Every now and then servants cleaned it all out and replaced the hay with a fresh layer. And ... that's it. TL/DR: Try and describe actual castles, not fake castles - most of the castles quoted or linked in this thread were in fact fake castles or real ones refurbished to be fake castles in the 19th century.
If you're going to describe the castle from the point of view of one of the characters, you should do so relative to what that character is accustomed to. A place which would seem cold and draughty to a modern visitor may seem like the lap of luxury to a medieval peasant. I'd also ensure the architecture fits the social/economic setting. Fairytale castles with many rooms and much luxury are more like stately homes, and would fit well in the context of a thriving society with rich merchants etc. If the setting is that of poor tenant farmers, then the castle may be a defensive structure to protect the people, livestock and harvest from attack by neighboring communities. This type of castle will have towers and walls and little else. There'd only be a few small rooms in each tower.
I was not aware of that, thanks for the correction, I'm guessing that they would be painted more often than not? Also... holy shit you went really in-depth.
Both "genuine" castles I visited recently had mixed portions of plastered/covered and non-covered walls. Additionally, the ongoing Guedelon castle project in France (where a couple dozen uvery enthusiastic historians have been building an actual castle using medieval tools/methods/materials) is qlso uncovered/unpainted. I also don't precisely remember any major plastered castles in Britain; I believe the classic "brown-gold-grey" colour of British castles was prized way over whitewashed walls (and I do believe it looks more imposing). At the same time, almost every Hungarian castle I know was plastered. The latter gave me an idea I will research in the near future; the fortified parts of medieval Hungary are all plentiful with limestone. Specifically, all three "big" castles I know that were also plastered (Buda, Visegrad, Miskolc-Diosgyor) were constructed on limestone ridges. The explanation of "plastered where available" would be fitting and neat.
Whitewashing or plastering was not done, at least principally, to be decorative. It was to protect the mortar. It often was not white, depending on what was available in the locality. One important point, the walls of a castle were not the walls of the keep. They were normally what is called a 'curtain wall' built between towers. The area between the curtain wall and the keep was the bailey although some larger castles had outer curtain walls and bailey and then an inner curtain wall and bailey. There were of course normally a number of buildings within the curtain wall besides the keep, stables, kitchens, armory, etc. The keep was the interior defence and the point was for attackers never to reach it. However, to make breaching the interior defences harder, the door to the keep was often on the first floor (second if you're American) with a ramp going up to it which sometimes was wooden so that it could be destroyed behind the defender. The real point of a castle was always defence or to control a rebellious population as in Wales, and as soon as people did not need them they almost invariably moved to manor houses. Castles were rarely built for comfort. However, between the various countries, there were tremendous differences in style and architecture. I am mainly acquainted with Scottish castles where there is a record of having been around two thousand castles over the centuries. Hundreds still exist.
If they are vampires, that might influence the layout of the castle. Such as big curtains that can be pulled from the door, so there's no risk of accidental exposure to sunlight or hidden passages that let them move around in the daytime. If they don't cast reflections, they have no need for mirrors, but they might like to have portaits of themselves around the place, to remind themselves of what they look like. If they can turn to mist, they might have slits in the walls to escape through or into.
Telling can be employed if the writer so desires. The thing about writing is that there really is only one rule - entertain.
Well seems like you already received a lot of good information and ideas. Lovely to see that! I'd say, make sure to also add in a bit of sensory writing. It doesnt just look gloomy, but also feels damp, chilly, smells like mold and rain, the wind whispering through the cracks etc. Make it an experience!
