Portchester Castle, Hampshire

(Click photos to enlarge).

Portchester Castle, which sits overlooking the eastern end of Portsmouth Harbour, is a medieval castle, palace and former Roman fort.


It all seems so much bigger once you get inside the inner walls of the main castle.



Pictured below is one of the castle's current residents.

St Mary's Church (below), dating back to Norman times, sits in the south east corner of the complex within the outer castle walls.

Here is another photo looking down at the ruins from on top of the keep, which is a whole lot higher than it first appears to be!

Proof that graffitti is no modern phenomenon.

All in all, this is a very nicely kept site and is well worth the admission fee. Like Doctor Who's TARDIS, it's a lot bigger on the inside than you may at first think. Personally, I didn't care for the audio tour (which is included as part of your admission fee), finding the actors doing silly voices extremely tedious, and I also prefer to make my own way around at my own pace and not have the tour dictated by a piece of technology. However, it may appeal to you, especially if you want a potted history. The other alternative is to read up about the history separately.

Date visited: 21 May 2009

See also: Portchester Castle
A Guide to Portchester Castle
An Interactive Guide to Portchester Castle

The Church of St Brynach, Cym Yr Eglwys, Pembrokeshire

(Click photos to enlarge).

When I was a small child, we used to holiday at a farm near Dinas Head in Pembrokeshire, and as a family we would trek almost daily from the farm to the nearest beach at Cwm Yr Eglwys. We spent many happy hours playing there. It was a fantastic beach for bathing in the sea and for its many rock pools waiting to be explored. Set in a secluded bay, Cwm Y Eglwys is said to have its own micro-climate and is supposedly a few degrees warmer than elsewhere on the Pembrokeshire coast.

One of the main distinguishing features at Cwm Yr Eglwys beach is the ruins of the 12th Century church of St Brynach. Most of the church was destroyed in the almighty storm of 1859, and much of the ground that it was built upon and graveyard was also swept away.

Above: The old parish church of Dinas, Pembrokeshire, prior to its destruction in the 1830s. Scan of a hand-coloured print dated 1830. Copyright expired: from "Wales Illustrated", Jones & Co, London, 1831. Painting by Henry Gastineau (1791-1876). Engraved by Edward Kennion.

By the entrance to the churchyard, we find this memorial - a model brig consructed in metal by James Eifion Thomas, Blacksmith, of Dinas Cross. The plaque reads:

The Cwm Trader

This is a scale model of a coastal trading brig, typical of those that plied the waters of Pembrokeshire and Cardiganshire about the time when St Brynach's Church in Cwm-yr-Eglwys was destroyed in the Royal Charter storm of 1859. These vessels were of relatively shallow draft and largely flat bottomed, so allowing them to be sailed into bays at high water and then unloaded at low tide by horse and cart transport. Many of these vessels were lost in that fateful storm and this model is erected as a memorial to those sailors and their ships and to mark the occasion of The Millennium.

Date visited: 10 April 2009

St Andrews Church, Church Ope Cove, Portland

(Click photos to enlarge).

The ruins of St Andrews Church are situated halfway up the cliffside above Church Ope Cove on the eastern coast of the Isle of Portland in Dorset.

Overlooked by Rufus Castle, St Andrews was originally built between 1150 and 1470 and served as the parish church of Portland until the mid 1700s.

The church was damaged following a landslip in 1675, but it wasn't until 1756 that the church was finally closed, and when stones were taken away to help build St George's Church at Reforne.

According to local legend the graves include those of several pirates, although we were unable to make out any of the lettering on the tombstones due to weathering and so couldn't pinpoint quite where their resting places might be. Another story I have heard is that it was French pirates who, along with the landslips, helped destroy the church.

Below we see another picture of Rufus Castle, looking across Church Ope Cove. The cove is now a popular site for fishermen and is home to many beach huts, although it was quite empty when we visited. The beach, which is absolutely strewn with pleasingly round stones and boulders of the grey Portland stone, seems to be quite a tranquil place and it must be a far cry from the days of attacking pirates and the smugglers for which the beach is famous.

Date visited: 9 March 2009