The 20 best Minecraft castles - builds, ideas, and blueprints

What are the best Minecraft castle builds? Minecraft’s sprawling, procedurally generated landscapes lend themselves perfectly to the majesty of a castle build, be it in the snow, lush green mountains, or stony peaks. If you’re desperate to build your own castle but need some inspiration for its design, these blueprints, tutorials, and ideas are simple to download, easy to follow, and perfect for triggering inspiration.

So you’ve outgrown your Minecraft house, want something bigger, grander, and more classic than a fancy mansion. Well, we’ve found some of the best Minecraft castle ideas to spark your creativity, and they range from mini fortresses to large, Victorian-style manors. There are builds here for every difficulty level, and, while most of these Minecraft designs fit into any of your favorite Minecraft biomes, some are perfectly suited to a specific setting.

The 20 best Minecraft castles

Here are the best Minecraft castle ideas and blueprints:

Spooky Minecraft castle

Bloodthorn castle is an incredible build made by three friends: MrMattRanger, BuildsByAra, and Graysun_Builds. While the timelapse videos like this one won’t make it easy to replicate, it certainly provides some inspiration for any builder, from the branching wooden hill upon which it sits, to the stunning color palette. Most of all, though, we love how redstone lamps are used to mimic warm light glowing through the windows.

Pale oak Minecraft castle

Any time a new block type is introduced to Minecraft, the incredible Minecraft community is so quick to create stunning new builds, and FoxFoil is one of the first to add the gorgeous and adaptable pale oak block to a Minecraft castle design. This detailed pale oak castle build is unique, and pale oak goes beautifully with the various stone blocks incorporated into the build. It might look like a scary undertaking, but FoxFoil simplifies the build into stages during the 20-minute video, allowing anyone to add this stunning castle to their Minecraft world.

Minecraft Copper Castle

Sausbuilds on Instagram creates some truly beautiful Minecraft designs, usually with a medieval or Japanese style. We absolutely adore this turquoise castle made of copper, though, it’s something a little different from the usual castle designs out there, and makes the most of the vast range of copper blocks added in the past few updates.

The other great thing about this build, which you can incorporate into any block palette, is that it’s higher than it is wide, and fits within a single chunk. This takes away some of the daunting prospect of a large castle build.

Pink Minecraft castle

A lot of the most popular Minecraft castles are pink, especially since the addition of cherry wood in Minecraft 1.20. Before then, though, there was still pink wool, terracotta, and concrete to build with and make your princess dreams come true – but where better for a princess to live than a castle?

There are so many pink Minecraft castle designs out there, but we chose to highlight this one from MyMinecraftHouse due to its unique shape. Plus, it even comes with a cute moat and drawbridge. MyMinecraftHouse’s tutorial is super easy to follow while also being speedy, so you can recreate this pink Minecraft castle in your own world with ease.

Dark Forest castle

Thanks to Stevler on YouTube, this castle build isn’t as difficult to replicate as you might think it is, and it’s perfect for any biome – especially if you switch out to your favorite wood type. That said, we love the original, especially since the Dark Oak Forest is one of our favorite Minecraft biomes. In fact, you could even consider adding a fantasy touch with some mushrooms and mushroom blocks dotted around.

Minecraft ice castle

This stunning Minecraft ice castle timelapse from MegRae of YouTube is an absolute marvel, and we’d love one of our own. While this isn’t a direct tutorial, don’t be put off by MegRae’s video, as it’s actually the perfect walkthrough in order to build your own version of Meg’s blue and white build, and we often prefer that to a side-by-side copy anyway.

I the first moments of her hypnotically voiced video, Meg confirms that the base for her castle is custom as well, so if you want this castle in an icy biome in your survival world, there’s already going to be a difference. However, the content creator then goes on to show just how they plan out the castle, both in a drawing and in-game, which is something you can do in your own world. From there, use her tips and timelapse to build up your own icy palace.

Nether castle

When thinking about castles, you might think of majestic grey stone buildings in the mountains, or beautiful fantasy castles surrounded by grass, but we also think the Nether is a pretty great place to consider building a menacing castle base.

This relatively small and simple Nether castle build from NexyBuilds on YouTube is the perfect place to start, giving you plenty of space to store your Nether treasure, grow Nether Wart, and anything else you might need inside your Nether base, without being too much of a challenge. Even better, their easy-to-follow tutorial makes it simple to build, so you can worry less about the building and more about the enemies surrounding you while you do it.

Minecraft sky castle

We do have a mix of beginner and expert castle designs below, so don’t run off scared if this looks outside of your abilities (for now!), we just couldn’t resist starting our list off with this stunning creation from Twin Saw on YouTube. If you do want to give this a try, Twin Saw’s tutorial is super friendly, so we actually think you could even give it a shot as a fairly new Minecrafter, but take a look to see if you agree. We will warn you, though, it’s split into five parts because, well, it’s a pretty hefty task. Either way, we just recommend taking a look at the stunning build in the cinematic above, to show you just how marvellous your Minecraft builds can be.

Minecraft Disney castle

Castles don’t come much more famous than the Disney castle, the iconic image that pops up at the start of every Disney movie and the backdrop to your most memorable holiday. If you want to build a replica of the Cinderella castle in Minecraft, then this tutorial by Bubbaflubba is the perfect copy, and somehow looks like it’s straight from an animation.

The reason we’ve chosen this build in particular, aside from how great it looks, is that you can download the Cinderella’s castle map on Planet Minecraft and go and have a decent look around, perhaps building your own from it. Cinderella’s castle is so big that most videos are just timelapses – this one included – so can be hard to work from.

Small Minecraft castle

If you’d rather follow a tutorial than work from a blueprint, this is a simple and easy small castle tutorial to follow courtesy of The Mythical Sausage, whose Minecraft farm ideas we also love.

It’s only 30 minutes to build, and if we’re honest, it looks more like an old stone church. Still, there’s lots of room to store items or build a workshop to store your Minecraft anvil and Minecraft grindstone. It’s also got lots of greenery and paintings, making it feel homely, complete with a small stable for your Minecraft horse.

Mountainside Minecraft castle

There are a few great designs for building a castle into a mountainside and integrating it with the environment around you, like this Dwarven castle tutorial from BigTinyMC on YouTube or ToxicKailey’s mountainside castle. But we love this twelve-year-old build by tyman231 on reddit, for the way it’s truly built into the landscape around it, working up from the grand castle entrance through the mountain, with  bridge and multiple towers all on different levels.

We think these three build could all be combined for inspiration, with the layout of tyman’s builds, the more up-to-date block palette of BigTiny’s build, and the grandeur of ToxicKailey’s making for quite the spectacular Minecraft castle. If only we had the building talent to give it a try ourselves…

Easy Minecraft castle

Ideal for busy Minecrafters looking to build a castle with relatively low resources. It, of course, has the added benefit of keeping creepers and other lurking hostile Minecraft mobs out and is just the right size to adorn the interior with all the home comforts you’ll need. Here’s the blueprint for this medieval Minecraft castle to make things a little easier.

With a single battlement, a large holding, and carved stone windows to hang your banners, we recommend digging a moat around the outside as the finishing touch – plus you’ll somewhere to take your Minecraft boat out for a paddle.

Large Minecraft castle timelapse

This magnificent castle build by wrldpaintn00b on reddit is the perfect starting place for inspiration if you’re looking to build a larger castle. From its majestic bridge, stunning stained glass windows, and incredibly detailed exterior, this castle is a true marvel. While the creator made the build in around 30 hours using World Edit, one of our favorite Minecraft mods, you could do the same or try and recreate a similar build in normal vanilla Minecraft – for a really tough challenge. While the timelapse isn’t a tutorial, you can download the castle map to have a look around for yourself.

Medieval Minecraft castle

A classic and cozy castle with all the medieval trimmings, this deceptively spacious and intricately designed building by Crafty Build It is the perfect place to sit atop a hill overlooking a Minecraft village and pretend they’re all toiling away for you. With a remarkably easy-to-follow tutorial to boot, we think this could be the perfect starter castle for beginner builders – the perfect blend of simplicity and a complex appearance.

Minecraft mini castle

If you’re strapped for time, this teeny tiny castle is perfect to set up quickly. It’s only three layers high, with two small towers and just enough room for a little Minecraft kitchen and a place to sleep. You can always add to it if you ever need more space, but start with the basic mini castle blueprint.

Minecraft castle starter base

OK, don’t panic, this might look a bit complex for a starter base, but this easy Minecraft castle has everything you need to survive your earliest Minecraft days, while also being predominantly made of the most basic resources, so they’re easy to gather. If you’re worried, you can even start off by just building the small entrance area to keep yourself safe at night, and building up from there.

We love this build for its unique curved staircase and spacious interior, as well as the various outdoor segments to which you can add farms and other essential tools. If you’re feeling daring, you could even expand on Classy Kiwi’s original design when you’re ready.

Japanese Minecraft castle

We simply love this beautiful Japanese-inspired castle design as it is. What makes this incredible tutorial even better though is that, once you’ve finished building, head back onto Cortezerino’s YouTube channel for the second part, which shows you how to build out an entire courtyard area at the base of your castle.

This is certainly a step up from some of the previous designs in this list so it’s not a build for the faint-hearted, and it requires a lot of materials if you’re thinking of building it in survival mode. If you do build it though, the satisfaction once you’re done and looking up at your own intricate Japanese castle makes it all worthwhile.

Minecraft Corfe castle

This one is quite spectacular, and we don’t necessarily recommend you replicate it in your own world, but many great Minecraft ideas come from real world inspiration, and this Microsoft sponsored video from YouTuber Grian shows him reimagining the Corfe castle ruins, and building what he thinks it would have looked like in its heyday. Even if you don’t plan on building something this mammoth, we still recommend the interesting watch.

Minecraft castle interior

Now you’ve got your castle design down, what about the inside? There are loads of tutorials for block-for-block castle interiors, but since you might have made something to your own design, these room ideas are more for inspiration. One thing we do know, though, is that castle interiors kinda have to be red.

Take a look through the video from BlueNerd above and pick out the rooms you think fit with your castle. Perhaps they all do, or maybe you’ve only got room for one or two. The Netherite armor-lines throne room feels like a must-have, while the library is a luxury we definitely want.

How to build a Minecraft castle gate

It’s all well and good having a castle that looks the part, but do you want a castle gate that actually works? Like, trigger a mechanism, and it opens and shuts? It might sound like witchcraft, but luckily for us, there is a blueprint of a working version that you can pop onto your castle. It even comes with a lock to keep would-be invaders at bay while you’re gone.

This build does take a fair few Redstone-powered gadgets to work, so it may not be one to fully customize for those who aren’t quite used to crafting working technology, but a working gate that fits your castle will certainly make a great first impression when you show others around. Heck, you may learn how Redstone gadgets work just by making the gate.

And those are all of the coolest castles you can build in Minecraft, if you want some inspiration of where to build them, here are the best Minecraft seeds. If you want something completely out of the ordinary, our pick of the best Minecraft builds feature all sorts of impressive designs to marvel at or try out for yourself. Alternatively, if you’re still into the castle idea but don’t have the motivation to build your own from scratch, you can always visit some of our favorite Minecraft maps featuring pre-made castles ready for you to explore.