the castle and the cliffs…

January 1193. Take away the buildings, the highways, the power lines and imagine how Dover might have appeared to Sir Henry and Sir Stephan as they sailed into the harbor. Their first sighting of England would have been the magnificent White Cliffs.

The keep of Dover Castle would have been prominent atop the Cliffs…


Construction on Dover Castle was begun in the 1180s during the reign of Richard the Lionheart’s father, Henry II. Henry & Stephan didn’t pop in for a visit on their return from the Holy Land that January. They were on an urgent mission that you will read about in Battle Scars.


On my recent trip, we got no closer to the castle than my fictional knights. We had a tour guide attempting to keep us on schedule. Dover Castle actually wasn’t on our itinerary, which is a real shame. I’m sorry I missed seeing it up close and personal. I’ll have to be satisfied and drool over these spectacular pictures from other photographers.

Advice to other travelers: when you see the tour offer for Leeds Castle, Canterbury Cathedral, and the White Cliffs in one day, forget it. It’s far too rushed.

  1. jadey36 Avatar
    jadey36

    That did sound a bit much for one day. Shame. I guess it’s for travellers who haven’t got a lot of time and want to cram in as much as possible.

    1. Char Avatar

      We could easily have spent a full day in Canterbury, and another day at Dover Castle. Ah well… live & learn.

  2. Marie Loughin Avatar

    We toured Scotland with a group. I hated sailing (figuratively speaking) past interesting-looking castles and sites in a rush to reach the next stop in our itinerary. We made our own itinerary when we went to Ireland. We still had to miss interesting sites, but but that was only because we stayed longer at a particular castle or museum, or maybe visited something we hadn’t expected.

    1. Char Avatar

      This was the 1st guided tour I’d ever done, and I really hated the ‘rushed’ feeling. I guess the only good thing is that we did get to Canterbury Cathedral & Leeds Castle (more on that in another blog post!) and we would only have been able to do 1 of the sites if we’d gone on our own because of time limitations.

  3. Jen FitzGerald Avatar
    Jen FitzGerald

    Awesome!


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