This study aims to clarify the influence of external notch on impact characteristics of high toughness ductile cast irons prepared by austempering heat treatment. We produced ductile cast irons samples with various matrix microstructure tested by Charpy impact within five kinds of external notches whose stress concentration factors (α), with values taken from 1.0 (Un-notched) to 4.8. In addition, to clarify the initiation process of impact characteristics, we observed the evolution of microstructure surface during bending tests with a slow loading speed for the un-notched and the notched impact samples. The results showed that the impact fracture energy decreases strongly in the range of α from 1 to 2.3 but decreases slightly for α larger than 3. Moreover, the impact value of samples with austempered microstructure is sensitive to the external notch shape. The impact transition temperature increases with increasing the stress concentration factor. The fracture energy is decreasing with the external notch from the impact test since the crack initiation energy is directly affected by this later. This work contributes to get a better understanding in the basic theories of external notch effect on impact characteristics of austempered spheroidal graphite cast irons (ADI).