1 - the sky looks fine. The darker bit of the castle on the left could be lightened up a bit as the transitioning is a bit abrupt. The tower might be leaning a bit to the right.
2 - the right side looks fine, the left side leaves are somewhat distracting.
My tendency is to prefer somewhat darker B&W images than some, so as a purely personal preference, I'd be interested in a trial of both images as a bit darker, more suggestive of being moonlit rather than sunlit, especially the interesting sky in the first image. Similarly, I didnt find the dark framing in the second shot at all distracting. A crop of the tree on the right of the first image might render the castle a bit more imposing. I love castles, and would be interested in seeing any you have. The New World doesnt have much to offer in the castle genre
Nice images... They remind me of the B&W movies of the 1940's of Dracula and Frankenstein... I can imagine some heavy organ music playing as I view these images...
I think that the black foliage framing adds to the impact of the castle...