Game of Thrones: Top 10 castles in Westeros, ranked

6. Dragonstone

Dragonstone is a castle located on an island of the same name at the mouth of Blackwater Bay. It was built 200 years before the Doom of Valyria and served as the westernmost outpost for the Valyrian Empire. Aenar Targaryen decided to relocate his family and five dragons to the island when his daughter Daenys the Dreamer had a prophetic dream of disaster about 12 years before the Doom wiped the Valyrian Empire off the map. After it fell, the Targaryens were the last  dragon-riding Valyrians in the world.

The Targaryens had a giant table built in the shape of Westeros called the painted table. It is here where Aegon, Rhaenys and Visenya Targaryen planned their invasion of Westeros around a century later. After they united most of the continent, Aegon began building what would become King’s Landing, along with the Iron Throne. The heir to the Iron Throne was given the title Prince or Princess of Dragonstone. Many Targaryens retired to Dragonstone in their later years, and several kings died there, including Aegon I and Aenys I.

During the Dance of the Dragons civil war, Rhaenyra Targaryen uses Dragonstone as her main military base since, her half-brother and rival Aegon was in King’s Landing when their father Viserys I died. When the greens usurped the thrown and crowned Aegon, Rhaenyra called the black council at Dragonstone to organize her war effort. Several wild dragons inhabited a volcano on the island called the Dragonmont, and the blacks put out a call for people to mount and tame these beasts in return for lands and titles.

Rhaenyra eventually left Dragonstone to capture King’s Landing, where she remained for several months during the war. Meanwhile, a wounded Aegon II was transported to Dragonstone by Larys Strong. Some of the castle’s garrison defected to the greens. When Rhaenyra returned to Dragonstone after a massive riot in King’s Landing, the greens were waiting and Aegon II fed her to his dragon Sunfyre.

Much later, when Robert Baratheron was leading his rebellion and killed the heir to the throne Rhaegar Targaryen, the Mad King Aerys II sent his pregnant wife Rhaella and his son Viserys to Dragonstone for safety. During a thunderstorm months later, Rhaella died giving birth to her daughter Daenerys Targaryen. Ser Willem Darry and a group of Targaryen loyalists smuggled the children off Dragonstone across the narrow sea to Essos.

Robert appointed his brother Stannis as the Lord of Dragonstone. He’s there with Melisandre at the beginning of A Song of Ice and Fire, gathering swords to his cause. After his defeat at the Battle of the Blackwater, Stannis licks his wounds at Dragonstone for a time before sailing to the Wall to help the Night’s Watch. He leaves a small garrison, which Cersei intends to root out by having Paxter Redwyne besiege the castle with his fleet. Loras Tyrell is intent on using Paxter’s fleet to defend the Reach from Euron Greyjoy, but Cersei refuses to move the fleet until Dragonstone falls. Loras then volunteers to lead an assault and take Dragonstone by force. Loras is successful but seems to be fatally wounded in the assault.