Return to Dover

Ever since we visited Dover back in February we have wanted to return. We still want to do the boat travel across the channel to France, but we just can’t figure out when to work that into our schedule. When we first visited Dover our taxi driver from the port back into town, told us that if we come back, we have to visit the castle and that it will take hours to visit. Since February we also kept coming across more and more history about the castle at Dover and we really wanted to go. We thus took the next Friday and headed off Dover Castle, right after I had my PT appointment. We really love Jason our PT.

The day was bright and sunny and warm, warm for the UK, not for SE USA. When a day here gets in the upper 50’s it is a great day and everyone gets outside. We got on the train at King’s Cross station and headed off on the almost two-hour train ride. The ride is so wonderful, as most are across this country. So many wonderful country sides and landscapes. It is so wonderful to sit back and not worry about driving or traffic. We arrived around noon and rode the city bus up to the castle. We were afraid it might be crowded on a nice day, but there was almost no one there, plus the castle grounds are way bigger than we ever imagined.

Our first stop was to find one of the cafes on site and grab a bite to eat. We even sat outside in the sun and ate, in the 50-degree weather. This will tell you how much we have adjusted to life here in the UK that we just figure that is a good temperature to eat lunch outside in. After lunch we walked down to one of the tours they have on site. It was the tour that takes you into the tunnels. These tunnels were first dug out in the late 1700’s when England was in battle with Napolean. The fear was he would try to enter England via Dover, he never did. The tunnels were not well built or designed or managed and eventually in the early 1800’s they were declared unfit for human use. When WWII came along the tunnels were reopened and expanded to the point that over 2,000 people lived and worked out of the tunnels during the war. The most important event came when the tunnels were the headquarters for the great military evacuation from Dunkirk during Operation Dynamo. If you have not seen the recent movie Dunkirk movie I would recommend it. Unfortunately, they did not allow us to take pictures in this part of the castle grounds.

Next, we made our way to the castle. By far this is the best-preserved castle we have seen. It also has many items set up in the castle to show off how life would have looked like. Most just have display cases with items in them. It was wonderful working our way up and through the castle and seeing all the different locations. The actual grounds have been used before even the Romans arrived at Dover in AD 43. The Romans built a lighthouse that still stands as just a stone shell, though it is one of the last and tallest Roman buildings within the country.

The castle itself really took its shape from Henry the II in late 1100’s. Before this it was mostly wood structures on the grounds, but Henry started building with stones. Over the next several hundreds of years the castle had more added to it and was used as a location to greet dignitaries arriving from Europe across the channel. It has also served as a military base to stop invasions from Europe across the channel. As the 1800’s arrived it became more of a storage location for many military supplies and became very rundown. During WWI and WWII the importance of Dover and the castle became increasing apparent and reinforcements to the grounds, tunnels, new weapons and buildings all were added to the site. It is a location with a real mixture of many different eras and a long history.

Touring the grounds and seeing and reading about all the history really put all the people who would have lived and worked and, in some cases, died there into real perspective. There was even still a smell of smoke and wood fires. You can see in the pictures how the fireplaces have been left with the soot still on them. The wood floors are also amazing, as one guide told us, many of the floorboards have come from ship decks after the ship was decommissioned. As the afternoon wore on the wind really started to pick up. The views from the castle roof really helped to understand how important this specific site has been in battles. Though it was not clear enough on the day we visited it is said that you can see France on certain days. We saw many very large passenger ships moving in and out of the Dover port while up on the castle grounds.

The last place I visited was St Mary sub Castro church which is on the grounds of the castle. Right next to the church is where the Roman light house remains are. The church has been around in some form or another since 1000’s. There have been many times it has gotten very rundown and needed many repairs to bring it back to being a church. From the mid-1700’s to late-1800’s the church roof collapsed, and the shell was mostly used to store coal. Then work began to restore it back to a church. Today it is very beautiful inside, and it does have services at the church to this day. Becky was pretty tired by this point and choose to get a coffee and find a bench and relax.

We once again stayed until they started to kick people out. We rode our bus back to the train station and then got on the train back. We were both very tired on the ride back, but were very happy to have taken the trip back and to have seen the castle. It was well worth the time.