William the Conqueror ordered the first wooden castle in 1068, and a stone castle replaced it under Henry II. Parliament razed the original castle in 1651. The present ducal mansion was begun in the 1670s for William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Newcastle, and finished by his son. The mason was Samuel Marsh of Lincoln. The article calls it Italianate and a rare English example of Artisan Mannerism.
Rioters burned the mansion in 1831. Thomas Chambers Hine restored it from 1875 to 1878, remodeling the interiors as a top-lit picture gallery, and it opened as a museum in 1878. A 30 million pound redevelopment ran from 2018 to 2023.
Nottingham City Council owns it, and the grounds reopened on June 26, 2023. The mansion is Grade I listed.
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