A visit to Castle Rising near King's Lynn

Friday, February 09, 2018

Castle Rising is one of the places I have always fancied visiting and yet somehow hadn't already. The day arose on Sunday when we found ourselves at a loose end on a winter's day, arriving at the car park around ten thirty. The blue skies betray exactly how cold it felt; with the windchill factor is was baltic!
Over the years we have visited plenty of historical monuments and I will only ever advise to take the audio tour! It might cost a little more but it will enrich your experience exponentially! In this case at Castle Rising it cost £1 for the audio handset and because it's plenty loud enough you can have one per small group.
The earthworks at Castle Rising make for the imposing stature of the Castle site; you have to see it to fully grasp the scale, none of my pictures have included the full backdrop. It is easy to see how this would have made the Castle inaccessible for anyone waging attack - you would be exhausted half way up the bank. The path can be walked around the perimeter of the bank with some new looking steps to avoid the steep climb yourself (phew), the views are fabulous. I can imagine in the heyday of occupation the surrounding parkland would have been so peaceful.



The level of architectural detail is amazing and still very much visible. The whole site was almost spotless, it felt incredibly clean and tidy.
I took an enormous amount of photographs but I won't share hundreds with you, just a few.






There were rooms at the top which were still used up to a while ago, all plastered out, with glazed windows. It felt quite eerie I have to say.


With a Castle of this age there is so much historical detail and with the audio tour it brought to life the areas of the castle, how they were used and who lived there. Queen Isabella was the most famous and we watched World Without End featuring the royals (and I find history difficult to grapple with so having a story I have seen dramatised makes it so  much more memorable) so I felt like I was already up to speed with the scene.
Our English Heritage membership enabled us free access for our visit but I know that sometimes special events take place here as well which would incur a fee.
Overall, I was impressed with the well kept Castle and grounds. It does have a little shop as well and I'm sure we saw signs to a tea room as well if you take a walk into the village.

If you are ever in the King's Lynn area then this is a nice place to stop by if you have an hour or so to spare.
Sophie

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Sometimes I am sent items to feature as part of a post and these will be clearly mentioned as part of each post.Everything else is bought by myself. Any sponsored or collaboration posts will be clearly marked. Each post is my own content and all opinions are honest.