Rising in tiers towards the crest of a hill, Dover Castle looks like the sort of fortress a child might draw. Gazing up at its sprawling battlements as I make my way there from the railway station, I imagine how the sight must once have intimidated approaching soldiers.
“Castles aren’t just about defence,” says Roy Porter, a senior properties curator working at English Heritage sites across the south, whom I meet at the formidable, five-towered Constable’s Gate. “They’re also about projecting power.” William the Conqueror founded this site shortly after 1066 to prevent invaders following him across the Channel, but it was Henry II who began the building as it looks today. “This is England’s premier medieval castle,” says Porter, a self-confessed “castle anorak”.
It’s also one of English Heritage’s most popular sites, attracting more than 270,000 visitors in 2023 — just behind Tintagel in Cornwall and Osborne House on the Isle of Wight (the top spot goes to Stonehenge). As well as its Great Tower, which recreates the look of the court of Henry II, the castle is best known for its tunnels. This week, besides the existing attractions — an immersive exhibition on the castle’s role in the evacuation of Dunkirk and a storytelling tour of its former underground hospital — a new experience has been unveiled: Dover Castle Under Siege. This multimillion-pound project took a year to pull together and will bring visitors into previously unexplored territory — the medieval and Georgian tunnels below its northern defences — and I am the first journalist to visit.
First, Porter shows me around above ground, starting with a wooden outdoor play area that looks like a stage set but turns out to be part-climbing frame, part-medieval arsenal. Games aimed chiefly at primary school-age children recreate some of the principles of siege warfare. A Whac-A-Mole-type platform allows children to try their hand at repelling invaders, and there’s a life-sized trebuchet — the first recorded use of these giant catapults was on this site in 1217 — as well as mini versions, which sensibly fire Hacky Sacks rather than lethal projectiles. “Fun is a huge part of this,” Porter says. “The idea is to use physical activity to spur the imagination.” I have three boys who have a tendency to weaponise everything from tent poles to broom handles — they’d have a field day let loose on this lot.
Inside repurposed barracks there’s also an arcade-style laser shoot’em-up game and a screen-lined room showing a dramatically scored animated film of the castle under siege, which should help to keep kids occupied while grown-ups explore the more conventional and information-dense multimedia exhibition space. Here, I learn that the tunnels were built to shore up defences in the wake of a series of determined sieges by English rebels and forces sent by Prince Louis of France during the 13th-century First Barons War (it’s the first I’ve heard of this war, despite being a history graduate). “It’s a story of national significance,” Porter says, “as well as one that’s crucial to understanding why the castle is as it is today.” (The closest point to mainland Europe, Dover has long been considered the “key to England” — though for different reasons today.)
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During the 18th and 19th centuries the tunnels were updated because of fears Napoleon Bonaparte might invade and it’s this Georgian period, when the castle was heavily garrisoned, that neighbouring galleries focus on. Rooms evoke the minutiae of soldiers’ daily lives, including their modest meals and cramped communal sleeping quarters. As I generally object to sharing a room with my children, let alone a dozen armed forces personnel, I’m startled to hear that many wives and children lived here too, despite there being no specific provision for families. “These were homes as well as fortifications,” Porter says. “It’s not all knights in armour.”
When it’s time to descend into the tunnels, I feel as if the castle has swallowed me whole, a gloomy path tipping me steeply into its bowels. The first, medieval part is rough-hewn and surprisingly spacious, described in documents from Henry III’s reign as big enough to ride a horse through. As we go deeper, neat brick-lining signals the start of the Georgian part of the tunnel. Ghostly projections and a shifting soundscape add to the eerie atmosphere: first, the clatter of excavation, then gunfire and the distant boom of cannon bombardment. Tunnels allowed soldiers to move, unseen, from inside to out and after 100m I too emerge, blinking, onto the Spur — a large earthwork at the northwest tip of the site’s defences — where there’s a dazzling view back to the castle that captures its epic scale.
Exciting tunnel happenings may be Dover Castle’s USP but the new addition has to compete with the exceptional Operation Dynamo: Rescue from Dunkirk, which opened in 2011. This has the advantage of contemporary footage as well as emotive video storytelling to capture a chapter in our national story. The self-guided Dover Castle Under Siege asks visitors to rely more heavily on their imaginations to fill in the gaps — although the reward is a deeper perspective (literally and metaphorically) on the tunnels’ history.
The 80-acre site really is, as Porter claims, “an embarrassment of riches”. More than justifying its entry price, it’s also extraordinary in its historical scope. During the afternoon I roam from a remarkably intact Roman lighthouse that dates from about AD50 to the Naafi (Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes) restaurant, used by soldiers until the army vacated the castle in 1958.
At 5pm, when other visitors are leaving, I check in to my home for the weekend: one of two holiday cottages on site. Romantic, 13th-century Peverell’s Tower looks as if it might have been the one from which Rapunzel threw down her hair, but as it only sleeps two and I’ll soon be joined by my husband and three children, I’m staying in the spacious, Georgian-era Sergeant Major’s House next door. Interiors are modern and simple, and there’s a ping-pong table in the basement and a lovely private garden. However, with exclusive after-hours access to the grounds, we instead spend the evening roaming empty paths, pretending we’re in a Famous Five story.
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As English Heritage cottage guests get free entry to all sites during their visit, we consider a trip to the nearby castles at Walmer or Deal but the next day is gloriously sunny so we set out in search of another Dover landmark: its famous white cliffs. We park up at the National Trust’s car park, a six-minute drive away, for a walk that starts with a peerless view of the ferry port. We watch as cars roll on to the boats for Calais — queues that might get rather longer when the European Union’s delayed “entry and exit” system is introduced come November.
Soon, though, the shipping containers are behind us and we’re striding along blustery clifftops; fields full of wild daisies on one side and the chalky headlands over the English Channel on the other. Happily for the children, this is a walk with an in-built reward system. After 45 minutes we reach the delightful Mrs Knott’s Tea Room at South Foreland Lighthouse, where we feast on homemade cakes and tea served in vintage teapots. Fortified, we persuade the kids to keep going and, half an hour later, are rescued by the Coastguard: a beachfront pub at St Margaret’s Bay. We drink a sundowner while watching our three boys collect chunks of chalk from the seashore — the youngest uses his to draw a picture of Dover Castle.
Orla Thomas was a guest of English Heritage, which has three nights’ self-catering for six from £740; entrance to Dover Castle from £20.90 for adults and £12.70 for children (english-heritage.org.uk)
What’s new on the Kent coast
The restaurant: Pomus, Margate
Proof that the gentrification of Margate continues apace, this recently opened bar-restaurant (named after the ancient Greek word for fruit tree) is the brainchild of Ryan Jacovides, the former MD of the Jamie Oliver group. The cool forest-green and cream space also has outdoor seating; the menu is focused on Kent produce, including Whitstable oysters and Canterbury cheese. Feeling inspired by the bold interiors? Head over to Our Curated Abode, a cool DIY store coming soon to nearby Ramsgate.
Details Mains from £15 (pomus.co.uk)
The exhibition: Peeping and Projecting, Deal
Seaside Deal may not have a cinema — but it does have its own museum of film. The creation of archivist David Francis, the collection explores the history of the genre both pre- and post-cinema. Its latest exhibition is devoted to the 18th century peepshow: a “magic box” that offered users a fleeting glimpse of far-off lands. Check out the shop’s range of Ealing Comedy posters then head to the sunny walled garden for homemade tea and cake.
Details Adults £7, children £4 (kentmomi.org)
The rental: Shoreline, Folkestone
A contemporary riff on the Regency buildings scattered all along this strip of coast, new development Shoreline is part of a major regeneration of Folkestone Harbour – and Kent specialist Bloom Stays has just added one of its slick four-bedroomed beach houses to its books. A curved balcony offers a front-row seat on sunrise, while the roof terrace has sea views stretching all the way to France.
Details Seven nights’ self-catering for eight from £4,900 (bloomstays.com)
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