Corfe Castle

Corfe Castle

Corfe Castle is a fortification standing above the village of the same name on the Isle of Purbeck in the English county of Dorset. Built by William the Conqueror, the castle dates back to the 11th century and commands a gap in the Purbeck Hills on the route between Wareham and Swanage. The first phase was one of the earliest castles in England to be built using stone when the majority were built with earth and timber. Corfe Castle underwent major structural changes in the 12th and 13th centuries.
In 1572, Corfe Castle left the Crown's control when Elizabeth I sold it to Sir Christopher Hatton. Sir John Bankes bought the castle in 1635, and was the owner during the English Civil War. His wife, Lady Mary Bankes, led the defence of the castle when it was twice besieged by Parliamentarian forces. The first siege, in 1643, was unsuccessful, but by 1645 Corfe was one of the last remaining royalist strongholds in southern England and fell to a siege ending in an assault.
(History taken from Wikipedia)

My wife & I just happened to be in the area that day so decided to visit Corfe Castle Now  I confess I have been there before but I was about 15 at the time so things have changed a bit you could say.
When I first came here with my parents it was on a trip from Swanage down the road. This time we came in from the other side and walked in from the National Trust Carpark.

The carpark is behind here and you can get a tea or coffee here as well as the usual gifts

From the carpark you take this path

That gives tantalizing glimpses of the ruins

It also gives a good idea as to how hard it would have been to get to if you were attacking it

Just before you get to the entrance you pass the National Trust Tea Shop. Wish we had gone here for lunch because the pasty we had from the bakery nearby was awful being greasy & undercooked.

After showing your membership of pass you cross the bridge to the castle 

looking left at the ruins

 or the broken turret you see

look over the bridge to see the deep moat

The first place you come to is where the portcullis wold have been

Then you are in this outer area before the inner keep

You can even see some medieval artillery 

Or the locals trying to earn a crust. Seriously the National Trust were giving displays on how people lived back in the middle ages

this guy was softening leather to make sheaths with

He was having his lunch

Walking to the inner baily you can see the ruind looking down on you

The Keep looks very imposing

Makes you wonder how they built the place. Note the lady on the left with arms in the air

Nearby you can look out over the surrounding area

Here we look down on the old ruined walls that Cromwells me tried to blow up

This was part of the great hall in the castle

This will give a better idea of where the hall was and looks like now

Looking out from one side of the hall you get a wonderful view of the area

which is over to the Poole direction

Climbing further up in the ruins gives a better  idea as to the size of the castle wals

most of which list over at an  angle

 Looking back at the hall area

and up at the keep ruins

 Very imposing building it would have been

Looking down you can see the gatehouse

 look out and see an amazing view of the area

Inside the main castle is mostly walls and windows

but you get a good view of the town of Corfe Castle

The main part which is seen looks really enormous

Even stood near the smaller parts they look huge

Stood on the walls the keep looks impressive

I find it hard to think how much effeort went into building it by hand originally

Weeds grow in places

on top of the old ruined walls

Going down you can see the beacon fires

I'll leave you with these views taken fom the side walls of the keep

Hope you enjoyed the tour.
You can see more photos of the town in this Blog and the churches in this one  

Raglan Castle

I have driven past this many time and every time said to my wife we should visit sometime. Well that one time came up and we popped along to view the place. Raglan Castle  is looked after by Cadw the Welsh government equivalent of English Heritage and if your a member you can get in at either a reduced rate like we did or free if you have been a member a couple of years. Here are a few photos from our visit.

The entrance and car park, lucky it was a nice day when we visited

Hard to know where to start but going to the entrance here is a good place

Walking round to the left gives you this view of the castle

Going further round gives this view and entrance which is where we went in

This is a panoramic view of the west side of the castle

 Inside you are greeted with this view of the place

 I noticed this carving which I thought looked Greek in stile

Climbing some stairs takes you to an upper floor where you can look down into the castle

Going back to ground level you could see where the floor you were on carried on further. In the walls you could see fireplaces

Going on further brings you to the great hall

 This is the coat of arms at one end

Couple of the windows in the hall looking out to the courtyard

This is the fireplace in the hall, lets say you can stand in this easy

It's hard to show in a photo the size of this window which is called the Oriel Window but if you go back to the photo I took of the Hall you can see on the left hand side at the end, the fireplace is just before it and that is about 6ft high

This was the kitchen area behind the hall

From the hall you can go to the courtyard which is easier to show in this stitched photo, that's a well you see in the foreground

From there I went to the Kitchen which must have been a dark and very hot place considering the number of fireplaces in it

 This is a stitched photo of the kitchen

Back into the courtyard, if you look to the end on the right you can see the Oriel Window from the Hall, this might give you a better idea as to the size.

Juts off the main gate you see at the end of the courtyard you can visit various rooms which have exhibitions in

Some of the cannonballs used on the castle  in the civil war 

This room had a fireplace & a toilet no less (got a little camera shake)

 Back outside to the other end of where I came in

 and time to go up this tower I had seen

Looking down off the bridge at the moat 

This is the other side of the moat

 Looking up at some of the battlements

 The views from the top were worth seeing

 Over the top of the castle

 Or looking back down

 The area here you see my wife walking was for the lady's of court to walk which was covered, the alcoves used to have statues in. My wife read the information on the wall

Still the views over Wales take some beating

 In the distance you can see the hills which I think are the Brecon Beacons

Looking up at the battlements over the gate house

This is looking up towards the place I took the photo downwards to the base I'm stood on

There is always a loo around if you need one or Garderobe as they are known

This is the main gate where the portcullis would have been

The moat and moat walk where ladies of court would have spent time. The alcoves would have at one time held statues

That's the tower I was taking photos from it's called the Hexagon tower

Looks a bit more impressive when you see the moat walk along with it

 I'm off  to that tree now as my wife is waiting there. Hope you enjoyed my tour of this Welsh castle it is well worth taking a picnic and visiting.