Winterfell

Winterfell is the ancestral castle and seat of power of House Stark and is considered to be the capital of the North. It is in the center of the northernmost province of the Seven Kingdoms, on the kingsroad that runs from Storm's End to the Wall. It is situated at the eastern edge of the Wolfswood, north of the western branch of the White Knife and Castle Cerwyn. Winterfell is south of the northern mountains and southwest of Long Lake, one hundred leagues (three hundred miles) southeast of Deepwood Motte.

## Layout

Winterfell is a huge castle complex spanning several acres and encircled by two massive granite walls. There is a village outside, the winter town. Winterfell has been built around an ancient godswood and over natural hot springs. The water is piped through walls and chambers to heat them, making Winterfell more comfortable than other castles during the harsh northern winters.

Inside the walls, the complex is composed of dozens of courtyards and small open spaces. Weapons training and practice take place in those yards. The inner ward is a second, much older open space in the castle where archery practice takes place. It is located next to the broken tower. Inside Winterfell stands the inner castle, which contains the Great Keep and the Great Hall. Winterfell's towers and halls have diamond-shaped window panes.

### Inner Castle

* The Great Keep is the innermost castle and stronghold of the castle complex. It was built over natural hot springs to keep it warm. The Great Keep contains bedchambers for House Stark as well as Brandon Stark's solar. The building is connected to the armoury by a covered bridge. From a window on the covered bridge, one can see the entire yard. Beneath the Great Keep are cellars with narrow windows.

* The Great Hall is used for receiving guests and the place where the household dines together, including the Lord of Winterfell. It is made of grey stone and has wide doors made of oak and iron, which opens to the castle yard, and a rear exit leads to a dimly-lit gallery. Inside it can hold eight long rows of trestle tables, four to each side of the central aisle, and the hall can seat five hundred people. There is a raised platform for noble guests, and the walls are covered with banners. The hall contains the high seat of the old Kings in the North. The seat's cold stone has been polished by the many lords who have sat upon it, and its massive arms are decorated with the carved heads of snarling direwolves.

### Courtyard and Other Buildings

* The First Keep, a squat and round drum tower, is the oldest surviving part of the castle but is no longer in use. Around it lies a lichyard where the Kings of Winter would bury their loyal servants. The keep has gargoyles atop it. Built after the Andals arrived.

* The broken tower, also known as the Burned Tower, was once the tallest watchtower in Winterfell. Half a century ago, a lightning strike set it afire and the top third collapsed inward, but no one rebuilt it. It stands behind the old inner ward. Crows nest atop the broken tower.

* The ancient godswood of Winterfell has stood untouched for ten thousand years, with three acres of old packed earth and close-together trees creating a dense canopy, which the castle was built around. At the center of the grove stands an ancient weirwood with a face carved into it, standing over a pool of black water. Across the godswood from the heart tree, beneath the windows of the Guest House, an underground hot spring feeds three small pools, with a moss-covered wall looming above them. The godswood is enclosed by walls, and is accessed by a main iron gate, or smaller wooden ones.

* The Glass Gardens is a greenhouse heated by the hot springs, which turn it into a place of moist warmth. It is used to grow fruits, vegetables, and flowers. The garden has green and yellow glass panes locked in frames.

* The crypt of Winterfell, located near the First Keep, is where members of House Stark are buried. The underground crypts are long and narrow, with pillars moving two by two along its length. Between pillars stand the sepulchers of the Starks of Winterfell, the likenesses of the dead seated on thrones, with iron swords set before them to keep the restless spirits from wandering, and snarling direwolves at their feet. The crypts are deep under the earth, cavernous and bigger than the complex above ground. They are accessed by a twisting stone stair and a huge ironwood door that lies at a slant to the floor. The stair continues below to older levels where the most ancient Kings in the North are entombed.

* The Bell Tower is connected to the rookery by a bridge. The bridge is covered and runs from the fourth floor of the tower to the second floor of the rookery.

* The maester's turret is below the rookery.

* The Library Tower houses the library at Winterfell. A stonework staircase winds about its exterior.

* The Guards Hall is in line with the Bell Tower, and further back, the First Keep.

* Winterfell has undercrofts and cellars. The castle also has dungeons, including tower cells.

### Walls

Winterfell is a huge castle complex spanning several acres, defended by two massive walls of grey granite with a wide moat between them. The outer wall is eighty feet high, while the inner is one hundred feet high. There are guard turrets on the outer wall and more than thirty watch turrets on the crenelated inner walls.
The great main gates have a gatehouse made of two huge crenelated bulwarks which flank the arched gate and a drawbridge that opens into the market square of the winter town.

There is a narrow tunnel inside of the inner wall stretching halfway around the castle, allowing travel from the south gate all the way to the north gate without interruption.

* The Hunter's Gate is close to the kennels and the kitchens. It opens directly onto open fields and the wolfswood, so people can come and go without having to cross through the winter town. It is favoured by hunting parties.

* The East Gate or east gate leads to the kingsroad. The Kingsroad Gate may be another name for the same gate.

* The Battlements Gate is a small arched postern in the inner wall. It crosses the moat between the walls but does not have a passageway through the outer wall.

### Winter Town

The winter town, so called because it is mostly deserted during summer, is where smallfolk gather in winter. It is outside the walls of Winterfell. Its market square is filled with wooden stalls for merchants, and its streets are muddy and lined with rows of houses made from logs and undressed stone. Less than one in five are occupied during the summer, but they fill up when winter arrives. The kingsroad, which runs east of Winterfell, is beyond the winter town. There is an inn in the winter town, the Smoking Log.

## History

### Older History

According to legend, Winterfell was built by Brandon the Builder, who was aided by giants, after the Long Night ended eight thousand years ago. Maesters believe it was built in pieces over different eras, since the ancient Starks did not level the ground and plan it as a single structure. Some scholars have suggested there were once linked ringforts where Winterfell now stands.
For most of recorded history Winterfell was the seat of House Stark, the Kings in the North and later Wardens of the North after King Torrhen Stark bent the knee to Aegon the Conqueror and his dragons. During the wars between the Kings of Winter from House Stark and the Red Kings from House Bolton, Winterfell was burned by Kings Royce II and Royce IV Bolton of the Dreadfort before the coming of the Andals to Westeros.

The First Keep, the oldest surviving part of the castle, was built some time after the Andals came. Winterfell's inner walls were raised approximately two thousand years ago, and the outer walls were built during the reign of King Edrick Snowbeard. The heads of some giants are said to have been displayed on Winterfell's walls.

According to free folk legend, Bael the Bard once entered Winterfell under the guise of a singer named Sygerrik. Leaving behind only a winter rose, Bael supposedly disappeared with the daughter of Lord Brandon Stark after tricking the lord. The daughter eventually reappeared with an infant, a future Lord Stark, the story claiming that they had been hiding in the crypt of Winterfell. The legend is not recorded in the chronicles of Winterfell, however.

Harvest feasts have been hosted in Winterfell.

### House Targaryen

King Torrhen Stark called the banners to Winterfell during Aegon's Conquest, but the King Who Knelt eventually submitted to Aegon the Conqueror at the Inn of the Kneeling Man on the Trident. King Aegon I visited Winterfell in 33 AC during the last of his progresses throughout the Seven Kingdoms.
King Jaehaerys I Targaryen and Queen Alysanne Targaryen visited Winterfell in 58 AC. Alaric Stark took Alysanne hunting in the wolfswood and allowed her to explore the castle library, and showed Jaehaerys the tomb of his brother, Walton, in the crypts.

### Dance of the Dragons

During the Dance of the Dragons, Prince Jacaerys Velaryon visited Winterfell and gained Cregan Stark for the cause of Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen and the blacks. According to Mushroom, Jacaerys slept with Sara Snow and wed her in the castle's godswood, although the fool's story is doubted by Gyldayn. The archmaester is also sceptical of Mushroom's claim that Vermax left a clutch of dragon's eggs at Winterfell.

As the war progressed, Cregan gathered hosts to Winterfell, Barrowton, and White Harbour before marching south toward King's Landing.

After the war ended in 131 AC, blizzards descended on Winterfell.