Dover Castle

(vero;2022-Jan-23)

We visited Dover Castle on a bleak winter day and enjoyed every minute of it: there is a lot to see, from a Roman lighthouse to a Saxon church, a Norman keep and palace and an impressive network of tunnels hewn into the cliffs.

The castle itself was built in the 11th century but the site has a much older history: there are traces of human occupation from the Iron Age and the Roman lighthouse on the cliff was built in the early 2nd century, one of only three still surviving in the world from this era. Then came 1066 and William the Conqueror stopped in Dover on his way to his coronation in Westminster: after seizing the port, he established a fort near the existing Saxon church (built around 1000 AD). Henry II (r.1154-1189) was the king to develop the place into a mighty castle and built the Norman keep and medieval palace in the years 1179-89: first English stop on the new pilgrimage route to Thomas Becket’s shrine in Canterbury, it was designed to receive important visitors and show-off the greatness of England. Due to its strategic position overlooking the English Channel, the castle has played an important role in the history of England, up to WWII when the extraordinary evacuation of the British Army from Dunkirk was masterminded from there in May and June 1940.

Go back to EH South East Sites or go on to Rochester Castle

$updated from: English Heritage Snapshots.htxt Mon 04 Mar 2024 16:04:47 trvl2 (By Vero and Thomas Lauer)$