Carisbrooke Castle Castles

Carisbrooke Castle is in the care of English Heritage. It offers seven acres of castle and earthworks to explore.

The oldest part you see today is a Norman motte and bailey - a stone shell keep on a mound, and a curtain wall round a courtyard, occupying the site of a former Saxon burh. Other medieval features are the well, with a treadwheel worked by donkeys, and the gatehouse, with its twin drum towers. Objects recovered from excavations in the castle (on loan from English Heritage) are displayed in the museum.

Enclosing the medieval castle is a fortification built in the 1590s as a defence against a threatened Spanish invasion. This fortification, with its long straight walls and arrowhead bastions, was designed for use with cannon.

King Charles I escaped to Carisbrooke in November 1647 and stayed here as a prisoner until September 1648, occupying rooms which now house the museum. Objects and documents connected with his imprisonment are displayed in the museum. .