Nightfort

The Nightfort was the first and the largest of the castles raised along the Wall, and its history is recorded in The World of Ice and Fire. It is the only one of them where the steps up the side of the Wall were cut into the ice, and it stands between Icemark to the west and Deep Lake to the east. As the strength of the Night's Watch dwindled the castle stood three-quarters empty and grew too costly to keep, so when Good Queen Alysanne Targaryen offered to pay for a smaller one the Watch agreed to give it up; Deep Lake was built with the queen's jewels by men King Jaehaerys I sent north, and the last brothers of the Nightfort were moved there two centuries ago. Three hundred years before Aegon's landing the commanders of the Nightfort and Snowgate made war on one another, and both lost their heads to the Starks of Winterfell. The grimmest of the old northern stories are set in the place.