One of the most visited castles in our travel history is Portchester Castle and the reason for that is simply that it’s barely ten minutes away in the car from our house and the castle grounds are free to walk around. If you want to visit the castle keep then there is a charge for non-English Heritage members and should you do that then you can climb to the roof of the structure and enjoy the views from up there. On this particular visit to Portchester Castle in 2009, however, we were content to simply walk around the exterior of the ancient fortifications for a bit of fresh air and gentle exercise.
Portchester Castle’s history dates back to the Roman period with early defences being built in the third century. Over the centuries after that it was used and expanded upon by Saxons, Normans, and Plantagenets, with a lot of the main castle elements you see today getting built in the twelfth century.
We do like a castle with a moat.
If you want to see how different Portchester Castle looks in the sunshine then you can see photos from a trip we took four years later here: Portchester Castle, 2013.