Storm's End

Its great curtain wall was a hundred feet high, unbroken by arrow slit or postern, everywhere rounded, curving, smooth, its stones fit so cunningly together that nowhere was crevice nor angle nor gap by which the wind might enter. That wall was said to be forty feet thick at its narrowest, and near eighty on the seaward face, a double course of stones with an inner core of sand and rubble. 
- A Clash of Kings

Storm's End is an ancient and enormous castle dominating the cliffs of Shipbreaker Bay from Durran's Point, where the Storm Kings of House Durrandon have ruled uninterrupted since the Dawn Age.

The great grey tower of Storm's End, punching up into the sky.

Layout

Storm's End is first and foremost a fortress, it has little in the way of ostentation and is a chilly, pragmatic, and stony place. It's largest feature is its smooth circular stone curtain wall, over a hundred feet high, and said to be forty feet thick at its narrowest, and eighty feet seawards.

The drum tower at the centre, grey and colossal and windowless, punches up into the sky and casts a shadow so large it can be seen from the other end of the bay. It is there that the lord of Storm's End resides, with space enough for a granary, barracks, a feast hall, and chambers for the lord and his family. Outside, kitchens, stables, and training yards, and a godswood shelter in the space between the keep and the walls, enough to hold several thousand men at any one time.

History

In the Dawn Age, the land around Storm's End was empty and the First Men who had migrated to the Stormlands dwelt further inland in places sheltered from the terrible storms that ravaged the east. Durran Godsgrief would arrive a few centuries after the first migrations into the region, settling the site with his brothers, which they called Durran's Point, and erected the first of Storm's End's progenitors, Durran's Keep.

After the Godsgrief settled, he went to the rainwood and returned with his wife-to-be, Elenei, said to be a daughter of the gods, to Durran's Keep. But at their marriage, Elenei's wrathful parents destroyed Durran's Keep, killing all of his friends, brothers, wedding guests. Durran and Elenei would survive however, thanks to the former's power, and Durran swore vengeance against the gods from the ruins of his home.

The Godsgrief stubbornly built six more castles, larger and more elaborate, over the ruins of the old to resist the storms but saw each one destroyed. It was with the help of Elenei and the singers that the seventh and final castle could successfully withstand the storms, which he named Storm's End. Though legends tell that a young Bran the Builder advised Durran how to construct it.