Location from A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin
The primary fortress of the Night's Watch — a cluster of stone and timber buildings huddled against the Wall's southern face, undermanned and underfunded, holding the line against extinction.
Castle Black has no southern fortification — a deliberate architectural statement that the Night's Watch takes no part in the wars of the realm. This makes it vulnerable to attack from the south, as the Wildling assault proved, but the symbolism matters to the brothers. The compound includes the Shield Hall, the armory, the Lord Commander's Tower, the maester's chambers, and the mess hall where black brothers eat meals that are rarely worth eating. The wine cellar is the best-maintained room in the castle. Morale at Castle Black runs on fumes. The Watch recruits from dungeons and desperate villages, and the men who serve range from genuine idealists to rapists avoiding execution. Jon Snow's election as Lord Commander briefly raised spirits, and his murder by his own brothers shattered them. The castle is a microcosm of every institution in Westeros — necessary, neglected, and full of people who don't fully understand what they're protecting the world from.
A modest compound of stone towers, wooden keeps, and training yards pressed against the base of the Wall, with no southern-facing wall because the Watch defends against threats from the north, not the south. An iron cage elevator rises to the Wall's summit. The courtyard is perpetually muddy or frozen depending on the season.
Also known as: Castle Black, the Watch's castle, the Black Castle