Swallow's Nest is a tiny medieval castle which may seem small and unobtrusive, but has been featured in many books and short brochures linked to crime and mystery. Due to this, Swallow's Nest near Crimea - a Republic of Southern Ukraine - has become one of the better-known sights in Ukraine. The castle was built in the early twentieth century between 1911 and 1912 on a cliff that juts out over the Black Sea.

There are different forms of transport that you can take to get to Swallow's Nest. If you are coming from Yalta then you can take the bus or you can take the ferry which is recommended. By using the ferry you will be able to get a unique view of this famous castle that stands magnificently above where the ferry docks.

Once you are off the ferry it just takes a couple of steps up to the Swallows Nest entrance where you will be required to pay a fee before entering into the grounds. This fee gives you access only to the grounds surrounding the attractive building. Apart from that there isn't anything more to view. The main building of Swallow's Nest is out of bounds and one is not able to view more of this pretty little place than that which you can see from the outside.

The inside of the Swallow's Nest castle contains two levels with a foyer leading to the two bedrooms and the guest room. To get to the two levels there is a stairway and higher up there is a tower to look out from. There is, however, a restaurant where one can get a drink or a bite to eat.

There is still much activity around the building as there are trinket sellers offering their wares to all the visitors and others offering to take your photograph. Some even have pets like monkeys and peacocks with them, which they offer to accompany you in the photograph if you so desire.

Swallow's Nest is a decorative castle near Yalta on the Crimean shore in southern Ukraine. It was built between 1911 and 1912 near Gaspra, on top of 40-metre (130 ft) high Aurora Cliff, to a Neo-Gothic design by the Russian architect Leonid Sherwood. The castle overlooks Ai-Todor cape of the Black Sea and is located near the remnants of the Roman castrum of Charax. Swallow's Nest is one of the most popular visitor attractions in Crimea.

The first building on the Aurora Cliff was constructed for a Russian general circa 1895. The first structure he built was a wooden cottage romantically named the "Love Castle." Later on, the ownership of the cottage passed to A. K. Tobin, a court doctor to the Russian Tsar.

In 1911, Baron von Steingel, a Baltic German noble who had made a fortune extracting oil in Baku, acquired the timber cottage and within a year had it replaced by the current building. The Scottish baronial and Neo-Moorish styles had been introduced in the Crimea in the 1820s by Edward Blore, the architect of the Alupka Palace (1828-46). Compared to Alupka and Koreiz, Swallow's Nest is closer in style to German architectural follies, such as Neuschwanstein, Babelsberg, and Stolzenfels, although its precarious setting on the cliffs by the sea-side may also suggest the Belém Tower.

In 1914, von Steinheil sold the building to P. G. Shelaputin to be used as a restaurant. For a short time after the Russian Revolution of 1917, the building was used only as a tourist attraction. In the 1930s, the building was used by a reading club of the nearby Zhemchuzhina ("Pearl") resort. In 1927, Swallow's Nest survived a serious earthquake rated at 6 to 7 on the Richter scale. The building was not damaged, except for some small decorative items that were thrown into the sea along with a small portion of the cliff. However, the cliff itself developed a huge crack. For a long time, Swallow's Nest was closed to the public due to the damage it suffered in that quake. The building would remain closed for the next forty years.

Renovation and restoration on the building was started in only 1968. The project involved the restoration of a small portion of the castle and the addition of a monolithic console concrete plate to strengthen the cliff. Since 1975, an Italian restaurant has operated within the building. Swallow's Nest was also featured in several Soviet films. It was used as the setting of Desyat Negrityat, the Soviet screen version of Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None. The Swallow's Nest Castle and the surrounding landmarks such as the Massandra palace were also shortly featured in a Jackie Chan film.

The building is compact in size (20 m long by 10 m wide; 65 ft by 33 ft). Its original design envisioned a foyer, guest room, stairway to the tower, and two bedrooms on two different levels within the tower. The interior of the guest room is decorated with wooden panels; the walls of the rest of the rooms are stuccoed and painted. An observation deck rings the building, providing a view of the sea, and Yalta's distant shoreline.

Head from Simferopol to Yalta by the world’s longest trolleybus route, and from Yalta go to Gaspra, near which Swallow’s Nest is located, by bus, taxi or with one of the many excursion boats (UAH20). Entrance to the territory of Swallow's Nest costs UAH3, entrance to the palace itself costs UAH6.