Bodiam Castle, East Sussex

On the border of Sussex and Kent near to the village of Robertsbridge, Bodiam has been a brooding symbol of power for over 700 years and possesses all of the key ingredients you can imagine in a castle – spiral staircases, battlements, windows for loosing arrows and ruins where knights once roamed and a surrounding moat with a crumbling and ruined interior that will fire up anybody’s imagination.

The Castle always has great activities to get the kids running around, looking at the natural features around the castle and burning off some energy. Dogs are allowed on short leads in the castle grounds and are welcome inside Castle View Café which has incredible views out across castle lawn down to the bridge across the moat to the castle.

Walking down to the entrance of the castle you are greeted by the moat and the drawing bridge, just across here are the remains of a fortified outbuilding, also known as the barbican, the two storied structure would have been occupied by a guard and gatekeeper, this outbuilding even had a line of defence built in with its own portcullis. A little further on you’ll see the amazing gatehouse where you can spot the original portcullis made from oak and one of the oldest in the country, they also imputed murder holes above so that soldiers could have dropped boiling water, hot sand or rocks onto their enemies in times of trouble.

Bodiam was built in 1385 by former knight of Edward III, Sir Edward Dallingridge; with his extensive knowledge of battles he designed the castle with intentions in mind of being able to defend the turbulent yet picturesque area of East Sussex, possibly from an invasion by the French during the The Hundred Years War. Sir Edward was the youngest son within his family and with traditions, this meant he was the last in line to inherit anything at all from the estate however, he married into a family that owned land and during 1378 he found himself owning the manor of Bodiam. During his knighthood from 1379 to 1388 he managed to pull together enough money to build himself a home, which were the humble beginnings of Bodiam Castle.

We spent a lot of time taking in the incredible views of the inside of the courtyard; the views really are majestic but decided to head up the north west tower, the spiral staircases blow your mind in how steep and small they are, it’s incredible to be able to climb the original stairs today, and we counted them as we went up, the north west tower is 36 steps up. We made our way up to the battlements, which were the ideal place for soldiers to roam and keep an eye and patrol the area.

The rooms up the north west tower were perfect for archers to have a greater vantage point, there were three types of medieval archers, the bowman, the longbow man and the crossbowman, a good bowman would be able to hit their mark from around 300 meters away and be able to fire twelve arrows per minute, the extensive research done around Bodiam isn’t so sure exactly which type of archer protected this castle, but they did manage to find arrowheads in the moat that may have suggested that a long bowman may have been here. Just across the battlements we cautiously entered into a room that is now is home to one of the most important bat roosts in the UK. Some areas of the castle may be closed at times of year when the bats are most active, such as when bat pups are born and are learning to fly. Interestingly there are three types of bat roost here. We didn’t happen to see any bat’s on our visit but there is a presence of them around with an odd smell.

The castle has appeared in the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail in 1975 – one of Brett’s favourite films in which Bodiam is used as a representation of “Swamp Castle” in the “Tale of Sir Lancelot” sequence. It also featured in an episode of the TV show Doctor Who and in a music video by Enya. Whilst we finish up exploring the various rooms, buildings and discovering the many nooks and towers I couldn’t help but find out what eerie tales haunt these beautiful walls. After all, nothing is as perfect as it looks.

Our visit to the castle was free with a National Trust Membership, but if you are interested in a onetime visit your ticket at the time of filming will cost you £11.00 but honestly, a trip here to the castle is worth every penny and is a wonderful day out.

It really is worthy of being one of the top castles in our Pinned list, I have to say this has always been a bucket list castle of mine and I think anyone thinking of visiting should go for it and enjoy a wonderful day of exploring and get those instagram worthy shots.

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Till Next Time!