Arundel: Castle of the Duke of Norfolk

So today I went to see a right and proper castle. I took a bus ride from Brighton to Arundel Castle. This is an image of the castle as we drove up through the mist. Unfortunately it was raining pretty hard when I got there, but at least the first part of the tour was inside. This will mostly be a picture filled post with few words. But I'm sure no one will mind.



This is the river that goes around the castle who's name I don't know.



And here's a picture of one of the roads in the city in front of the castle.



But this is what we came to see, the seat of the Dukes of Norfolk, Arundel castle. Unfortunately, like some other British places, I wasn't allowed to take pictures inside the state rooms themselves due to the security system that was in place. Apparently the flash in certain cameras can mess up the security cameras. Since they don't which models use them, they just ban all photos inside the house at all.

It kind of makes sense though, because this is the first castle I've EVER been in that actually has modern inhabitants. The last Duke of Norfolk died in 2002 and the new one is currently using the castle as his main place of residence. They have a few kids who are mostly university age from what I heard. It's a very nice and warm place to live. I almost thought I wouldn't mind living there, but then wondered about my choice when I saw the wooden toilet platform. But I bet they have normal toilets that they just didn't show us.



But once we were out of the state rooms we could take pictures outside. And so we went up to the original Normal keep from William the Conqueror's invasion (1066).









But I now I feel a little more sympathy for Geoff and his fear of mideval stairs. I could barely get down these things with my backpack on. And more than once I thought I was going fall down. They couldn't have been more than 2 feet wide and each step was probably a foot tall and maybe an average of 6 inches wide.



But getting up the stairs allowed me to get some really cool vistas of the surrounding area like this view of the chapel on the castle grounds with the cathedral of Arundel (which I didn't go see) behind it.



And here are some pictures of the vistas from the top of the castle





Then I went outside and took a bunch of pictures of the really cool castle.


















Then there was a separate entrance to the grounds of the castle which were really cool.



And there were roads all over that could take you from one part of the castle to another. Very rural England.




Besides the castle, there's a nice formal garden that they have too. These are an example of the fountains you see as you come in.



This is a picture over most of the garden from one side.




And this is looking back from the other side.



In that little house on the end had a tall fountain holding up a replica of a crown. I don't totally understand it's significance, but it looked interesting.



They also have a few paths with things growing over them. I also think I saw a patch that had lettuce growing in it.



Although it is a castle that the public can wander around in, there are a bunch of places we can't go. It's nice how they can be hidden in among the foliage so that you almost miss the fact that they're here.



This is a picture from inside the chapel on the castle grounds.



A picture of the resting place of one of the previous dukes, I suppose. I didn't have much time left as the last bus was going to leave for Brighton fairly soon.



And a nice picture of the stained glass at one end of the chapel, over looking the burial casket of another Duke and Duchess.