Bodiam Castle & Sissinghurst Castle Gardens

Today we visited 2 National Trust properties in Kent.

Our first stop was Bodiam Castle. The castle doesn't just sit in a moat. It appears that after construction in the 1300's the land around the castle was flooded. The only way in was via a small drawbridge. The castle is in amazing shape and much of the interior walls remain. You are able to see where the servants lived, the chapel, the great ball and a number of the private rooms.

The castle was in constant use until the English Civil War when it was gutted. It's histoy is pretty much non-existant until the 20th century when rebuilding started.

We were able to climb to the top of the main tower where we could look over the countryside and view more of the architecture of the building.

We stopped for sandwiches and soup and then headed to Sissinghurst Castle Gardens. There were no tours but a little climbing. We were able to climb to the top of the tower so we could look over the entire garden layout. They kids were able to walk around and touch flowers so they didn't appear to be too bored. :-) Most of the flowers were no longer in bloom but the layout was amazing and one could easily imagine what it looks like in the spring & summer.

Afterwards, we tried to find some neolithic burial chambers. I had the maps but no exact directions. (my undoing). Unlike CADW in Wales, English Heritage doesn't like to put up signs to their smaller properties. We drove around the main roads and even down a long (supposedly) two lane road that looked promising. But to no avail. We ended up in downtown Rochester and had to make our way back to the M2. We then gave up and treated the kids to Pizza Hut.