Dover Castle - the ancient years

I won't begin to go into the actual history of Dover Castle , but if you see the picture on the previous post, you will certainly understand why the site was chosen. Today in real estate, it is location, location, location. That had a slightly different meaning 'back in the day' and in visiting castles around the world, you can almost be sure that the site will be a marvelous hill/mountain top which could be readily protected.

The War Tunnels gave a good glimpse of the view towards the south across the Channel and one could imagine keeping a lookout for those wicked old Normans. (Tho we know how that story turned out...) The actual castle is up northward behind the cliffs, and is in amazingly good condition. It's what a castle should be!

We trudged up the hill, past the officers mess, and up beyond where our car was parked. Castles on the hill? Somehow it seemed more uphill.

We met our tour leader and group just over the drawbridge.

The Keep was closed for some renovation but it looked rather magnificent even now.

We toured the various battlements and with the wind whistling, one could imagine being a soldier assigned to that tower long long ago...cold and waiting to spot The Enemy.

Because the Keep was closed, we were allowed to go into the Tower you saw in the earlier photo.

Despite the cold, spring was certainly coming to Kent, the Garden of England.

It was warm and toasty in the Gift Shop and we had a good look round.

A quick visit to the Church and the Roman Tower

Finally, back at Broome Park, we decided to check the land across the highway where we had hear a lot of shooting. This pheasant seemed to know we weren't hunters.