Dover Castle is the jewel in the collection of English Heritage.  It’s been perched on the hillside overlooking the Channel since the mid 1200s, but before that, of course, the Romans were there.   In fact 1 of only 3 surviving Roman lighthouses in the world, is at Dover Castle.  

We are English Heritage members and have been quite a few times but our friends, Penny and David, hadn’t been before.  It was a lovely day.  Sunny. Warm but windy as usual. 

There’s a lot to see.   This corner of England has been the focal point of invasion for thousands of years:  The Romans. Angles. Saxons. Vikings, French. Spanish, Germans.. ..they’ve all at one time threatened to cross the 21 miles.  Some did.  But none successfully since Dover Castle was built. 

We started off in the underground tunnels and rooms.  They were started in Napoleonic times but really came into their own in the early days of WW2 when they were used as the control base for the evacuation of Dunkirk and then for the monitoring of any invasion.   The whole experience is very visual with lots of multimedia.   Really enjoyable. An incredible tale.   A miraculous rescue…..

Then we walked up into the main castle area and explored the Keep.   I really love it especially as it is basically furnished so you get some idea of how people lived in the 1200s. ….  

There’s also an excellent museum based around the Queen’s Regiment and The Princess of Wales regiment that dates back hundreds of years and their very, very many campaigns and war honours.   

We left at about 2.  A very well worth visit with much of interest and amazing views over the Channel and Dover