Number 3 - Pevensey Castle
We visited Pevensey castle in September 2010.
To be honest, from the outside it doesn't look like much. I'd spent quite a bit of time there as a child and just thought it was an old crumbling wall and a huge field. But what I didn't know, was there was an actual castle bit in the middle of this area and that had a few pretty jazzy things.
For one, there was a pyramid of, what I can only assume were boulders, all joined together. I tried lifting them without any success.
The castle was about in the 4th century, so amazing any of it is still standing to be honest. It was the last and strongest Roman fort and was where William the Conqueror and his army landed in 1066.
You could climb up the walls and stand on the wooden platform which had a great view of the outer castle walls.
We were given an audio guide when we went in. It gave lots of interesting information especially as we descended the spiral staircase to the dungeon.
They had actors doing little pieces as if they were alive way back when, as we entered the dungeon the prisoner on the audio recording started telling us what it was like down there. His monologue finished, with 'help me, heeeeeelp meeeee', we power walked up those stairs pretty sharpish.
It's not got the structure or beauty of somewhere like Bodium, or the number of activities, but we still had a lovely time.
The weather was a bit windy on our visit but you could have a nice relaxed picnic if the sun was out. We went in, over a wooden drawbridge, and decided to go all out and get the audio devices that tell you the history of the castle.
Cost: £5 approx
Hints and tips: There weren't any places to eat or anything but it is in the village of Pevensey which has some nice pubs and restaurants.
If you want to find out why we're visiting all these castles, check out my first blog.
Number 2 - Bodiam Castle
Bodiam Castle is often the castle that is used to adorn the front of heritage books. It's got a really distinctive exterior and a moat, pretty impressive.
We had a lovely day there in April 2010. Chloe made some lemon drizzle cake for the trip which was a real bonus and we worked our way through that while walking from the car park to the entrance.
Bodiam is a 14th century castle with a moat. It's a ruin, but you can still climb steps to the tower and there were lot of beautiful archways that were all in tact.
When we got there we realised we'd picked a good day. There were loads of people dressed up in medieval garb, all very exciting. At one point we watched a little exhibition by the medieval re-enacters and, don't ask me how, but Chloe ended up in the stocks, which I thought was absolutely hilarious.
It was a bit wet the day we went so we were using our coats as rain covers. We climbed the tower which had some great views of the castle as a whole.
There were also some rather lovely turrets up there.
Then the sun came out for our photo, Chloe didn't have her sunglasses though, shame.
Cost: It's about £7 per adult for the castle and grounds
Want to know why we're doing this? Check our my first blog post.
Number 1 - Cilgerran castle
Now Cilgerran was a slight cheat as we actually visited it before we had set our hearts and minds (as the politicians say) on the castle challenge. We were camping in Wales and decided to pay Cilgerran a visit as we 'quite liked castles (little did I know, where this would lead).
But as we went together, we're counting it as our first castle of the challenge. So Pembrokeshire is where our castle journey began. The visit took place in June 2009.
Cilgerran is a 13th century castle ruin and overlooks the Telfi Gorge. The views really were stunning. Apparently little coracle boats used to travel up and down the river. We also saw these on a river near our campsite called Salmon Falls.
It's managed by the National Trust and we were both pleasantly surprised how much of the castle was accessible.
There were loads of turrets, walkways, secret paths up walls etc.
You could walk along the walls and peer through the holes where I assume a bow and arrow would have been poking out.
The history books say a castle was first built on this site by the Normans, but the current masonry castle style was probably created by William Marshal who was the Earl of Pembroke.
Cilgerran castle is different to other castles of it's time as most were designed to have one stronghold at the centre in the form of a tower. Cilgerran has two! I'm not sure if this would have made it stronger or more vulnerable, but I suppose that isn't something I need to worry about.
On a side note, we stayed on a delightful campsite in Cenarth, a tiny little village, and they won a 'loo of the year award' which was literally why I chose them. I have a fear about what I might find in dirty public toilets.
Cost: the bargain price of £3.50 for adults.
Hints and tips: The castle lived in a little village and I remember parking being a slight issue but we just found somewhere and walked back to the castle, not a huge problem.
If you want to know more about our castle challenge, check out my first blog post.
So one day, myself and Chloe were on a little mini break (we often take these to make sure we're getting some fun, quality time away from the stresses and strains of life), we tended to just pick a pretty place and spend a couple of days there, on this occasion we were in Winchester visiting King Arthur's round table and Jane Austen's house.
I can't remember which one of us suggested it, but we decided our mini breaks needed more structure. We both love heritage buildings, cathedrals, manor houses, castles. So we suggested setting ourselves a challenge which would mean lots of fun memories and little trips together.
Our challenge is to visit every castle in the UK. We chose castles because they are all over the place, and it meant we'd go out of our way to visit places we'd never been too. Also, we'd been to one together already in Wales while on a little camping trip in lovely Pembrokeshire. So we thought we could count that and get cracking.
The rules:
- We have to go together: the castle doesn't count if only one of us has been without the other
- We have to take a photo of the two of us together with the castle in the background
- We do ruins and full castles - as long as there is something to see (even if it's just a boulder) we'll go
- Castles must be based in the UK
- The time limit is the rest of our lives (...there are a LOT more than we thought so didn't want to set ourselves up for a fall)
So in this blog we'll plot our journey of castles. We'll give our impressions, tips and little stories of what we did there.
Now, I'm starting this blog in Sept 2014, when we've actually already been doing the challenge for a few years but it only just occurred to me to write a blog. In fact, we've just done our 31st castle, so things are going well. Therefore, some of my posts will be retrospective, but I'll make sure I include lots of interesting facts and tips.
Hope you enjoy!
Morgs
