Eynsford Castle: Kent, England

Number 24 - Eynsford Castle

We planned a day trip round Kent seeing castles, and this was the first one on our agenda. It's run by the English Heritage and is an early example of a Norman enclosure castle. Though there wasn't loads to see, I really liked Eynsford, the views over the surrounding fields and landscape were really beautiful. And going in November 2012 meant we got a nice hit of Autumn colours, which I love!

You could just about make out where walls and partitions would have existed and there was information about what would have happened in these different rooms which I found interesting.

Eynsford in an unusual castle as it didn't have a keep or a main tower. Instead, the bedrooms and living areas were situated on the first floor, much more like a regular house. Maybe they never felt at threat in good old Kent.

Costs: Free

Hints and tips: There isn't much directly around this castle, but the village seemed sweet and it's in a really beautiful bit of England.

Find out more about other castles we've explored, and why we're doing this in the first place. 

Sutton Valence Castle: Kent, England

Number 27 - Sutton Valence Castle

While on a day trip to Kent in November 2012, we decided to pay a visit to Sutton Valence castle.

While driving down little country lanes to find it, we got completely lost and had to ask a man wandering around in his wellingtons. He looked very concerned when we said we were trying to find the castle and said 'you do know it's a ruin don't you?'.

He was telling the truth. There really isn't much castle to see at Sutton Valence. Though it is free to get in. It's managed by the English Heritage and is at a nice vantage point over a sweet little village. It's the ruins of a small 12th century Norman Keep. Really there were just two walls which you could walk through and then there was another wall fragment. That was kind of it.

Cost: Free

Hints and tips: don't go out of your way to see it, but it's near lots of lovely towns and villages if you fancy a day out in Kent.

Rochester castle: Kent, England

Number 26 - Rochester castle

We visited Rochester in November 2012 on a day-long castle expedition to Kent. It's run by English Heritage and sits overlooking the harbour. We parked a bit further away from the castle and walked up the hill. It's in a pretty central location, so you could visit the town as well and have a full day there.

From the outside, you can only see the Norman tower, but once you get inside it's pretty mammoth. The tower was built in 1127 by William of Corbeil and it's 1313 feet high.

You could walk round the inside of the castle through passageways, and you could climb up all 4 flights. When we got to the top level it was open air and looked out over the grounds and the harbours/river which was lovely. 

Cost: £6 for adults

Want to know why we're visiting all these castles, check out my first blog.

Spofforth Castle: North Yorkshire, England

Number  22 - Spofforth Castle

So far, on this quest, Spofforth is right up there in my top 3 (along with Stirling and Nunney castles).

The castle is in the middle of nowhere, if you weren't seeking it out, I doubt you'd just come across it. It's managed by the English Heritage and apparently building started in the 13th century. It was essentially built to be a home and manor house for a powerful family in the area.

We parked in the village and wandered up the path to find it. It is most definitely a ruin, but a beautiful one and you can still walk round. 

There are some steps which means you can access the lower ground floor. It was fun imagining where the inhabitants would have had dinner and things.

It was amazing to see that some of the beautiful detail round the windows still existed, I love that kind of thing. How does it survive through all the battles?

 

While we were having a look round we came across a hole in the wall. Inside we found a little note, which said 

'Dear Fairys, I'm in year  four now. The reason I'm writing is because I haven't sened a note for a while. From Pernille.' Just so you can see the proof, here is a photo of it:

 

How absolutely adorable! I used to love the idea that fairies and gnomes lived in structures like this and spread their magic around, and little Pernille is very much thinking that too. We probably should have written back, but we didn't have a pen.... or any fairy dust.

Cost: free

Hints and tips: Wear some sturdy shoes as the ground is quite uneven and could be muddy in wet weather.

Ashby De La Zouche: Leicestershire, England

Number 14 - Ashby de la Zouche

Asby de la Zouche was our first castle stop on a mammoth 6 hour road trip to County Durhamm to stay in Lumley Castle overnight. We thought it would be sensible and productive to break up the drive with some other castles.

As we arrived as the castle, the heavens opened. I've never known rain like it. Drenched like never before, we ran around Ashby de la Zouche. Slipping and sliding across the grass, we still decided it would be a good idea to climb the tower. Luckily I had packed my husbands cagoule or I would have been in real trouble. 

The people manning the English Heritage office clearly thought we were mad to attempt a visit in the torrential rain.

 

Despite the weather, the castle was really pretty, a different style to others we'd visited recently. I loved the tall walls and window frames. 

It was built as a manor house in the 12th century and reached castle status in the 15th century. I don't know how it 'reached castle status'... maybe that is something I should be looking up.

 

Thorough investigation was tough as we couldn't see more than about two feet in front of us. I've since discovered there was an underground passage, sad to have missed it but it was probably flooded anyway. 

 

Cost: £4.70 for adults

Hints and tips: The roads in Asby de la Zouche are quite narrow, so big cars will need to be careful.

Bolsover: Chesterfield, England

Number 15 - Bolsover Castle

Ah! Bolsover.

Now we have a slight confession about this. We hadn't planned to visit it, but kept seeing signs so we just thought we couldn't ignore them any more, if a castle was within our reach, we had to go. So we shot off the motorway and followed the brown castle signs.

However when we got there we realised it was HUGE and would probably take all day to get around. We just didn't have time. We were on a trip to stay in a castle in Durham and had a schedule of other castles to call in at on the way up. We were in a real quandry. Plus it was raining.

We walked round the outside and could see it looked impressive but decided not to go in. We've counted it anyway, as some of the castle ruins we do end up just standing by, but in the future we hope to make it back up there again to walk round.

Our apologies to English Heritage, who we're sure make it look very lovely for visitors. Apparently there are painted ceilings and everything!

It was built in the 1630s but must have had substantial work done to it as it still looked in great condition.... from the outside.

We did pop to the town to get a packed lunch for the car journey. Nothing exciting, just some hoola hoops.

Costs: £9.50

Hints and tips: ...go in

If you want to read about castles we actually did explore, check out my blog.

Bramber castle: West Sussex, England

Number 6 - Bramber Castle


Oh Bramber, it was a bit of a 'nothing' castle. But we have to do them all on this challenge so it needed to be done. There's nothing wrong with a ruin, I love a ruin normally, but this was very minimal.

We visited Bramber in April 2011. We'd spent the first part of the day at a dress shop in the lovely little village of Steyning trying to find Chloe a bridesmaid dress for my wedding. We had cheese toasties in this adorable little tea room - the village is definitely worth paying a visit. We'd done a bit of advanced research, in case we could combine our trip with a castle visit, and we found Bramber was located pretty close by.

Bramber is managed by the English Heritage, but I use the term 'managed' loosely as I doubt they have to do much other than mow the grass. Essentially all it was, was one wall of the tower, nothing else was really left apart from a few bricks and boulders scattered around. There was a huge mound which I think would have been man made so people could see the army approaching.

It was a Norman castle on the banks of the river Adur. I guess if the weather was nice we could have taken some grub but it was a bit murky so we just skidaddled off once we'd done a quick walk round.

Cost: Free, which was a relief as we were done after about 2 minutes.

Hint and tips: Unless you're on a castle challenge I am not sure I would bother. Though the location is in a nice setting for other local towns and villages.

Farleigh Hungerford Castle: From, Somerset

Number 5: Farleigh Hungerford Castle

Having visited Nunney earlier on the same day, we headed off to Farleigh Castle. However the snow and ice delayed our journey and we got there very close to closing time. I think the woman felt sorry for us so she let us in for free to run around, literally. 

It was November 2010 and the weather was dreadful. We were all wrapped up and had to move quickly. It was a shame as Farleigh Hungerford was bigger than we thought with lots of bits we could have pondered over, but we were on a deadline.

It was set in a really beautiful area in the valley of the river Frome, near Bath. The views were great and you could see it was well positioned to see where the enemy was coming from. 

It was built in the 14th century but then lived in for 300 years by the Hungerford family. They had a pretty gruesome past and you could learn about it with an audio guide, not that we had time for that on this visit!

I really liked the chapel where there was artwork and tombs you could explore. Also the crypt with a barrel load of coffins, all a bit grim.

I wish we'd had longer to spend at this castle, but we didn't, so that's that.

Costs: £4 approx

Hints and tips: There was a car park, though I think we got lost a few times trying to find it.

Want to find out more about why we're doing this challenge? Take a look at my first blog post.

Nunney Castle: Frome, Somerset

Number 4 - Nunney Castle


Nunney Castle was a very pleasant surprise. 

Chloe and myself were on a mini trip to Bath to visit a woman who I was hoping was going to make me a headband to wear for my wedding. We thought we may as well squeeze a couple of castles in while there.

We went in November 2010 and the weather was very frosty. When I say 'frosty' it was full on snow and the roads were icy. This made Chloe nervous, so I drove. The car was skidding about all over the place, we should have turned back.... we didn't.

We got to the village of Nunney and I thought we must of gone wrong. Most of the castles we'd seen so far were in fields away from the towns, but the sat nav directed us right into the middle of this adorable little village. The castle was behind a church and I fell in love as soon as I saw it. It was more of a big house than a castle with loads of sections. From the back it looked in pretty good condition, but when you got round the front half of it was gone - really striking!

It had a moat, though this was frozen. Apparently it was built in the 1300s by a Knight who the King liked. It was Christmas 1910 when the wall fell apart. It's managed by the English Heritage.

We slipped and slid over the icy drawbridge to get a good photo of us at the front. You can't spend long there, after walking round for about 10 minutes we'd looked at every inch of it. So we set off for some soup/home made quiche in one of the gorgeous village restaurants.

Cost: Freeeeeeeeeeeeee

Hints and tips: there isn't much to see in the castle itself so it'd be a quick (but lovely) trip. Parking in the village and then walking round would be best.

Want to find out why we're doing this challenge? Check out my first blog post.