The Moorish Castle (or Castelo dos Mouros) is a walled fortification built by the Moors in the 8th and 9th centuries. It sits on top of a hill near to the famous Pena Palace of Sintra. It can be seen from all around and is lit up at night giving it a spectacular 'castle in the sky' appearance when viewed from the town of Sintra at night. My wife and I visited the castle in February and I would highly recommend doing as we did and combining the visit with Pena Palace which is not too far away (you can easily walk). Cars cannot reach the Pena Palace or Moorish Castle so we took an Uber which I highly recommend as it was just €4.50 each way from Sintra centre. You can also get a bus. You can buy tickets at the entrance or online (as we did for about £7). From the entrance to the castle involves a walk of several hundred meters and once inside to climb the walls to the high points is quite strenuous and the 9th century steps are uneven and dodgy so I would not recommend for the elderly or infirm. The high walls also do not have barriers on the inner sides and so if you have children with you take extreme care. That said, for its historic value, and for the spectacular views I would say that the castle is unmissable if you are in Sintra, and the climb to the highest point is well worthwhile.

Sintra is a place not to be missed while visiting the Lisbon area of Portugal. I highly recommend coming by train from the Rossio Station and taking the 434 Circuito da Pena bus from the railway terminal. It is inexpensive and convenient as the traffic in Sintra is worse than anywhere else possible, plus, there is no more parking allowed by the castles. The Mouros ruins are scaterred in a huge park and it will be a rewarding experience to walk them through, including the climb to its highest point, allowing for terrific views of the town. Be prepared by wearing comfortable shoes and clothing to protect yourself from the blinding and hot sun in summer and be able to explore the precarious paths on top of the stony remains of the castle. Make sure to carry with you some drinking water as well. This may not be a trip for people with mobility and physical challenges.

A worthwhile trip to the top of this stunning place. Would be amazing if there were people telling stories about this location and making sure the visitors are ok. Magnificent views! Worth it My Recommendations: If you are going to a few palaces in one day buy all tickets in advance from the tourist office in Sintra town so you avoid queues to buy them in each of the locations. We skipped them all! saved time. Catch 434 bus in town buy the loop trip hop on and off ( €6 euros) to take you here. Get there early and start with this castle first then then do Pena castle which you can walk to ( 300mts uphill) or jump on the 434 again. Then once you do Pena castle jump on the bus again to get to town

My favourite place we went to during our trip. The views were spectacular and breathtaking. It can pretty scary though if you are scared of heights and I wouldn’t recommend bringing little kids who just want to run around. We walked up from the town taking the back way trail which was pretty steep but only took us 20 minutes with multiple stops. We bought tickets at the entrance for €10/adult, no line ups at all and fairly empty when we were there shortly after lunch time. There was also a sitting area and food options available as well as washroom facilities. You can also bring your dog in though they cannot walk on the castle wall so there is a little dog parking area for them.

As mentioned in my review of Pena Castle we went down from there here. It was a 20 min very nice walk. We had the tickets already so we entered directly. On the way up to the castle there are the ruins of an old church nicely reconditioned. The castle itself is actually only walls of the old fortress that you climb and go around to admire the beautiful view of Sintra and surroundings . There is a small store where you can buy water a nd some snacks inside the fortress. From the Castle we went down to Historical city Centre walking down the mountain and following the signs it's a 25/ 30 min downhill walk witch is so nice you can admire the houses and old buildings and see part of the city on the way. Hope it was helpful and enjoy your stay in Sintra.

Well worth a visit and I would recommend walking the path up to it. Theres lots to see on route and plenty of shade. It's been purposely built for people to walk up in slow time with lots of rest places. It will take an hour to walk with the path changing from a solid path, to woodland climb to a dirt track. Ensure you have suitable footwear. You'll also need these anyway for inside the castle. Once up the top you need to purchase a ticket, either from the machines or from the actual Castle when you go through the main gate. If you want to visit the Palace as well it will cost 15 Euro, if you just want to see the Castle it's only 8 euro. Check what you select!! Its a nice flat walk to the main gate of the castle with some great views on route (15 min). Once inside you can walk around the whole Castle. Pretty much there is a far right and far left to head towards and up. Once up on either one, check the views out of Sintra below and Lisbon in the distance. On the far left you can see the Palace. There is a small cafe inside the castle with toilets etc. I would recommend about 1-2 hours inside. If you didn't walk up, I suggest you treat yourself and walk down. Once in the old town, have a quick look around.

Catching the early morning train to Sintra from Oriente, took a little over an hour. Exiting the northern side of Sintra Station which was the end of the railway line, we waited in line with other tourists to catch the regular tourist bus to the Moorish Castle with the building crowd. When the bus stopped outside the gate to Castelo dos Mouros, most tourists stayed onboard to go to the next Palace stop. Tickets from the auto machine at the front gate took forever, due to a machine not working, but the wait was worth it. Fabulous, though not ideal for anyone experiencing walking difficulties. Just enjoy what we still have the opportunity to visit. We felt it was a wise move for us to exit the tourist bus at the 1st stop when there were no crowds, which we experienced later in the day. Upon leaving we caught the next packed tourist bus to Pena Palace.

Built by the Moors as a military fort in the 8th century, it acted as a control tower for the Atlantic coast and northern outposts from Lisbon. We entered the small, arched gate at the bottom of the hill and began our climb up a well-maintained path, through what looked like primeval forest, filled with tall trees, lots of greenery, and beautiful flowers. It was idyllic. Along the way we passed several archaeological sites—silos used by the Arabs (probably also by 5000 BC Neolithic people) for storing grain and ruins of Islamic houses. Muslim occupants of the castle settled near these ruins in 10th-12th centuries. Continuing on we passed the Church of San Pedro, built in the 12th century, following the reconquest of this area by King Alfonso Henriques in 1147. It was the first parish church of Sintra and was used for worship until the 14th century. It is now a museum containing artifacts and history of the castle. Further up the hill we passed through the arched gate in the towering wall. Once inside, we saw an ancient cistern and water trough in the small garden, then headed up the path to the castle keep. Standing on one of the highest hills, it is visible from the surrounding plains and the Atlantic and is the strategic center of the fortifications. We climbed to the very top of the tower and had magnificent panoramic views of the entire valley below and of the three major palaces which we had visited in Sintra: National Palace, Pena Palace, and Quinta da Regaleira. Spectacular phot ops! From the castle keep, we walked along the wall, from one tower to another, getting some great pictures along the way, and wandered through the lovely gardens before winding our way down the mountain to catch the bus back to Sintra.

I would love to give this a positive review but I feel quite bitter about it now. I had been most looking forward to my visit to Sintra, and to this castle in particular. We arrived by train and had a beautiful (and tiring) walk up; when we arrived we saw that the ticket office was closed and all the ticket machines were broken. Then, you couldn't buy the tickets from anywhere online (i.e. all the official or third party websites would fail at the point of purchase) - I suppose the central server was down. There were massive numbers of people all trying the same as us to get in or buy a ticket (from the machines, on their phones, etc.). The guard wouldn't let anyone without a ticket in - obviously, this isn't his fault, but it's maddening that this major destination does not have an alternative, even when they clearly see and were acknowledging that their systems were not working. Why couldn't they get someone in the ticket office? Why couldn't they take cash at least for the temporary period that the online tickets weren't working? Frankly, if the system is down like this, and it's no ones fault that they can't get a ticket, they should have just opened the gates. We wasted good time on a day trip that is limited by time anyway queuing and fighting with broken websites and ticket machines, only to be unceremoniously turned away at the gate, having travelled far by plane and train and climbed high on a hot day to see it. I don't know when, or if, I'll ever be back again, and I'm genuinely quite upset about it. So, for anyone reading this: make sure you pre-buy your ticket if you want to get in; but also, don't expect that to work. And if it doesn't, don't bother going because they'll turn you away.

Yes, there are plenty of castle ruins around Iberia, and no shortage of palaces and strongholds from the Moorish era, but you will have a difficult time finding anything quite like this. There is history all around as you walk up the path leading to the walls; the supervising governmental authority has done a fine job with signage where archaeological finds are noted and preserved. Once inside, you experience and appreciate the size and scope of what was built here more than a millennium ago and, of course the wonderful views toward Sintra and the Atlantic. We found it fully worthwhile. A few notes: the walk up to the castle was not strenuous, but if you plan to walk all the way up its walls once there, be prepared for significant effort. Do not expect the “cafeteria” to meet anything other than the most minimal of expectations. And unless you feel you have no other choice, do not come here on a rainy day that is not only wet but also likely to reduce or altogether eliminate the spectacular view. Rain forced us to rearrange some travel plans to see the castle, and are glad we went at a time when the most could be made of it.