THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON TOUR: WALMER CASTLE

THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON TOUR STORMS WALMER CASTLE,

DEAL, AND DOVER CASTLE

We boarded our ‘bus’ outside the Grosvenor Hotel and met our wonderful driver Graham. As we learned over the next few days, he was a diamond of the first water among coach drivers — remember not to call the vehicle a bus! We set off driving through London into Kent toward the Channel coast.

Walmer Castle, September 2014

You will not be surprised to hear this blog has written of Walmer before. Here is our introduction to the visit on the Duke of Welington tour, in which we relate many facts about the Castle and the Duke’s residence, including the visit of Lady Lyttleton, the very one you met last week on the St. James walk as once the lady of the building now known as the Stafford Hotel. Click here.

Victoria visits in 2011 here.

Wellington’s life at Walmer here.

The Death of Wellington at Walmer here.

You can see all of my (Victoria’s) pictures in the previous posts. Here are a few from Diane which will giver you a flavor of Walmer Castle and its lovely gardens.

We made a quick stop; in Deal, not far from Walmer…and a larger town. Here is the beach, as photographed by Denise.

Elaine photographed the Town Hall, dating from 1803

A row of 18th C. houses along the seaside, in one of which Admiral Horatio Nelson lived.

Thanks, Elaine.

For more about Deal Castle, a larger version of Walmer, dating from the time of Henry VIII, click here.

Denise also shared some pictures of our final stop that day, at Dover Castle on the heights of the White Cliffs, here as seen from the Beach.

Denise an
d I shot almost exactly the same picture as we approached the walls of Dover Castle.

from Denise

from Victoria

Tour-goers scaling the approach

Modern weaponry still guards the channel and port

Formidable!!

A visit to Dover Castle takes you from the time of King Henry II (1133-1189) to World Wars I and II, through medieval tunnels and secret modern wartime tunnels, from ancient armaments to today’s garrison keeping watch over the English Channel and the important port of Dover.