Dover Castle

Did You Know?

• The castle has been used as a filming location for the Doctor Who serial The Mind of Evil.
• It appeared in the film Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015).
• The castle was also used in the TV series Wolf Hall and The Hollow Crown.

History

The earthworks at this location may date back to the Iron Age or even earlier, before the Romans arrived in AD 43. This idea comes from the unusual layout of the earthworks, which does not match the medieval castle perfectly. Digs have uncovered signs of Iron Age activity nearby, but it is not clear if that activity was linked to a hillfort. Inside the castle grounds sits one of Dover’s two Roman lighthouses, one of only three Roman-era lighthouses left in the world.

It is also the tallest and most complete Roman structure still standing in England, and some call it the oldest building in Britain. Built in the early 2nd century, this five-story, eight-sided tower used layers of tufa, Kentish ragstone, and red bricks. It survived by being turned into a belfry around the year 1000, gained a new top section around 1430, and got a partial fix-up in 1913–1915. The other Roman lighthouse, called the Bredenstone or the Devil’s Drop of Mortar, has only a few remains left, sitting on the Western Heights across the town.

Across the Channel, the Roman lighthouse at Boulogne-sur-Mer, known as the Tour d’Ordre, was built around AD 39 by Emperor Caligula’s order. Its light should have been visible from Dover. The writer Suetonius noted that Caligula built a tall lighthouse, similar to the one at Pharos, with fires kept burning all night to guide ships. Coastal erosion made it fall into the sea in 1644.

Old engravings of its height might show what the Dover lighthouse once looked like. After the Battle of Hastings in October 1066, William the Conqueror and his army took a winding path to Westminster Abbey for his coronation, going through Romney, Dover, and Canterbury. Dover has been a top member of the Cinque Ports since their founding in 1050, and this may have first caught William’s eye, leading to Kent’s motto of Invicta. In 1088, eight knights were given tenures to guard Dover Castle: William d’Albrincis, Fulberl (or Fulbert) de Dover, William d’Arsic, Geoffrey Peverell, William Maminot, Robert du Port, Hugh Crevecoeur, and Adam Fitzwilliam.