July 25 - Dover Castle

We started the day with a visit to the Battle of Britain Memorial, located just outside of Dover. It’s designed so that the whole thing looks like a propeller from the air (the statue seen here is at the centre), which is a little difficult to see from the ground but still well worth a visit.

We soon left the memorial and continued onwards to Dover Castle, which sits on a hill looking down on the coastal city. The castle has components ranging from ancient times to the present day, and is thus an entire lesson in English history.

Standing on the castle's highest point is a Roman Lighthouse, built in the second century A.D. when the port of Dover was first created (to the right of the church in this picture). Next to it is the Saxon church of St. Mary-in-Castro, built around 1000. The church was completely redone in the nineteenth century and is today the garrison chapel, but it is still possible to see some of the millennium-old original features.

Next, we entered the castle’s inner walls to tour the Great Tower, built by Henry II in 1180 and supposedly the “last and greatest keep” of the early Middle Ages. This keep was built to welcome wealthy pilgrims on their way to Canterbury, and as such was elaborately decorated and furnished. Today, the main rooms have been redone, giving you the chance to (sort of) experience what the castle would have looked like eight hundred years ago.

At the top of the Great Tower is an observation platform from which you get amazing views of the Kent countryside, the city of Dover, the English Coast, and the Channel.

The last significant part of our tour was through the many miles of tunnels built into the cliff beneath the castle. First used as a barracks during the Napoleonic wars, they were extended and reused in both the Second World War and the Cold War. Some of the tunnels have been opened to the public, including the WWII hospital wing and the command stations used by Bertram Ramsay to plan the Dunkirk evacuations.

Lastly, we visited the Admiralty Lookout, built during World War One as a means of observing friendly and/or enemy activity passing by in the Channel.

The castle was both architecturally and historically fascinating, and even after spending a full day on the site there were some things we didn’t see. We returned to Aunt Val and Uncle Ralph’s for one final dinner this evening before heading back to the bed and breakfast to pack ahead of tomorrow’s drive into London.

GWV