Storming the Castle!

As mentioned in the post Glorious Gorey, Mike and I have heritage cards and today we christened them at Elizabeth Castle. The castle is around 500m, as the crow flies, from our house but we have to walk nearly a mile to get there because of where the access routes are. During high tide the castle is cut off from the land by the sea. However, 3 hours either of low tide the castle is accessible by foot via a causeway. We arrived just a little to early to walk across so we caught the Duck, which is a semi-aquatic vehicle, designed to drive as far as it can then float/be propelled when the water passes a critical depth. We thought it would be fun to give it a whirl! They played cheesy, nautical related music on the ride over!

Once in the castle we begun to explore! However, knowing that we could come back whenever we wanted there was no pressure to see everything in one day. It was a far bigger place than Mike remembered from his childhood days and, from my daily walks, I could not get the full perspective from outside the castle!

The castle mound was first home to an abbey which was raided and grounded during the reformation. The only part to remain was St Helier's hermitage which still stands today, a little way out from the castle on a high rock.

Being one of the major defences of Jersey, the castle was also used as a garrison for troops. They still do re-enactments, including firing a canon! Usually it can be fired in 60 seconds. Today it was done in 6-10 minutes! See if you can spot someone we know! ;)

During the second world war the Germans used the castle as a base and fortified it somewhat. All of the fortifications still remain and many of them aided the preservation of the castle.

We had a thoroughly marvellous time and plan to go again! Come and visit and we will take you!