Visit to Dover and Walmer Castles

Being as I don't have much quilty to write about I'm following on from my last post about last weekend.  More of our explorations included a visit to Dover Castle and then onto Walmer Castle futher up the Kentish coast.  Unlike the visit to Bruges the weather was sunny, if cold and windy but much better for getting around.

With the French coast being in sight of the Channel, Dover became of strategic importance for fighting them off!  Hence a strong fortification and the Romans even built a lighthouse here.  The castles are run by English Heritage, of which we are members.  But for those wanting some quilting inspiration the little church, which is still used by the Army today has and unusual feature - mosaic walls.

 Here is a look down the aisle towards the altar

Oh yes, the floor of the aisle with which definitely reminds of patchwork blocks

Here are some views of the church alongside the ruin of the Roman lighthouse

Here are some other views of Dover Castle

 The entrance tower

Above is looking towards the Great Tower and just above are the gun batteries

 A "ferry" nice view of Dover harbour from the buildings below.

We did want to visit the Tunnels which are a feature of the castle,  but being a nice day on a Bank Holiday weekend, there was a long queue of people which didn't seem to go down, so we gave that a miss (another excuse to visit again, sometime) and went on to Walmer Castle.

This castle was home to the Lord Wardens of the Cinque Ports, who controlled the channel ports of Kent and East Sussex and there's more detail about the ports on this site here. Two of the most well known Lord Wardens include the Duke of Wellington (this is where his Wellington boots are kept) and Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.   It has lovely views out to sea and also some lovely gardens which we had a wander through.  Here are some pics

 Looking out to see from the castle.

 Uneven yew trees line the path down the garden

 A view of the kitchen garden through the apple trees

 Looking down the garden to the castle

 In the Queen Mother's garden, looking from the arch in the shelter at the Italian style pond.

 Lovely tulips

And David, posing in front of some big guns.