Bodiam Castle
Bodiam Near Robertsbridge East Sussex TN32 5UA
Fourteenth-century Bodiam Castle looks every inch the way a proper castle should, with a wide moat and turreted towers bristling with arrow slits. It’s one of the most splendidly picturesque castles in the country, and, from the outside at least looks much as it would have done 600 or so years ago when the wealthy Sir Edward Dalyngrigge had it built. Inside the castle walls, little remains of Dalyngrigge’s living quarters – the Parliamentarians gutted the castle during the Civil War – but enough original features remain to spark the imagination, including the original wooden portcullis (possibly the oldest in the country) and the ‘murder holes’ in the gatehouse, through which boiling oil and water could be poured on to the heads of the enemy. Winding staircases lead up to the battlements, which give fabulous views out over the Sussex countryside and down to the castle courtyard below.
