When you picture a castle in your mind, I’m sure you think of a huge, towering, forbidding building atop a mountain, possibly with turrets and fortified walls, right? Like an Edinburgh Castle for instance.
That was definitely the picture in my mind when I decided to visit Hurst Castle. SO not the case.
But I’m getting ahead of myself here. Firstly, I needed to GET to Hurst Castle. It’s not the easiest building to reach, and I guess that does remove the need for the fortified walls somewhat. To get to the Castle, you either have to go by boat (there is a ferry service) or walk the 2 or so miles across the shingle spit.
Shingle spit you ask? Fair question. Basically, the Hurst Spit is a naturally formed beach path that has risen up from the waves and protects the salty marshland of Keyhaven. Hurst Castle is at the very end of the Spit, sticking out into the ocean so that it’s less than a mile from the Isle of Wight.
Hurst Spit
view to Isle of Wight
I thought walking along the Spit was a lovely idea, romantical even. Especially when I found out the ferry was 7 pounds or something. Well it turns out that schlepping through shingle is not easy. It’s pretty much like trudging thorough a huge pile of gravel. Add to that sea winds threatening to push you off the path and into the waves. And the fact it’s not exactly summer anymore.
this shingle ain't made for walking
So there I was, trudging unhappily across the Spit with numb fingers and wind in my ears, the only thing pushing me forward being the promise of a fun castle visit (I like castles, definitely fun in my book, ok?).
I finally arrive, and what do I see? A squat, circular building that looked more like the prison from Shawshank Redemption than the castle of my dreams. Not happy Jan!
you call that a castle?
really?
I don't think so. Is Andy Dufresne here?
Turns out that Henry VIII built a series of about 10 fortresses along the coast which were all low-lying, stone buildings with a concentric plan- high tech, modern castle building of 1544. It doesn’t look very impressive from the outside, but once inside I could grudgingly see he was probably onto something. It wouldn’t have been easy to attack this puppy.
I’m not sure if Hurst Castle ever was attacked, but it was manned and modernised right up until the end of WWII. This makes for a really interesting visit, because not only can you see dark dank artillery stores from medieval times, but also 38-ton guns from the Napoleonic period and searchlights and communications equipment from 1944.
Looks like the windy conditions put off everyone else, because I was the only visitor to the Castle the whole time I was there. They actually had to turn on the power generators especially for me, so I felt a bit bad about the paltry 3 pound entry fee after that.
The fact I was alone and wandering through flooded dungeons (it really was used as a prison!) as well as rickety, teeny tiny stairways up to battlements with unglassed windows was definitely atmospheric. It’s the kind of place that I would love to bring a few 5 year old boys to- they’d really get a kick out of it!
I wasn't kidding about the flooding.
Turns out that, despite outside appearances, Hurst Castle was pretty cool. Pity about the blustery walk home afterwards.
Anything but Tripe 