Hastings Castle is positioned high above the seafront and has been partially destroyed by cliff erosion along its S side. The chief remains are the N and E curtain walls with an E gatehouse and bastion. The collegiate church of St Mary within the castle is in ruins. There is no Romanesque sculpture in situ.

The first masonry defences seem to have been erected by Count Robert of Eu in the late 11thc., and the church is thought to have been begun before 1094. The property was granted to Sir Anthony Browne in 1547. Excavations were carried out by William Herbert in 1824 for the owner, the Earl of Chichester, and the first comprehensive description was published by Charles Lawson in 1909.

Neither Hastings Museum nor Barbican House, Lewes, know the whereabouts of these fragments (correspondence, 2000).