Sights in Kent
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Dover Castle
The almost impenetrable Dover Castle, one of the most impressive in England, was built to bolster the country's weakest point at this, the shortest sea-crossing to mainland Europe. It sprawls across the city's hilltop, commanding a tremendous view of the English Channel as far as the French coastline.
The site has been in use for as many as 2000 years. On the vast grounds are the remains of a Roman lighthouse, which date from AD 50 and may be the oldest standing building in Britain. Beside it lies a restored Saxon church.
The robust 12th-century Great Tower, with walls up to 7m thick, is filled with interactive exhibits and light-and-sound shows that take visitors back to t…
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Leeds Castle
This immense moated pile is for many the world's most romantic castle , and it's certainly one of the most visited in Britain. While it looks formidable enough from the outside – a hefty structure balancing on two islands amid a large lake and sprawling estate – it's actually known as something of a 'ladies castle'. This stems from the fact that in its more than 1000 years of history, it has been home to a who's who of medieval queens, most famously Henry VIII's first wife, Catherine of Aragon.
The castle was transformed from fortress to lavish palace over the centuries, and its last owner, the high-society hostess Lady Baillie, used it as a princely family home and p…
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Sissinghurst Castle Garden
Sissinghurst Castle Garden is one of the most famous 20th-century gardens in the world, legendary among writers and the green-fingered. The creation of poet Vita Sackville-West and husband Harold Nicolson, it innovatively grouped similarly coloured plants to create 10 distinct garden ‘rooms’. The famous White Garden, with its shades of white, grey and green, was a source of inspiration for Sackville-West as she gazed upon it from her study, also open to visitors.
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Hever Castle
The idyllic little Hever Castle seems to have leapt right out of a film set. It's encircled by a narrow moat and surrounded by family-friendly gardens, complete with cute topiary of woodland creatures and wandering ducks and swans.
The castle is famous for being the childhood home of Anne Boleyn, mistress to Henry VIII and then his doomed queen. It dates from 1270, with a Tudor house added in 1505 by the Bullen (Boleyn) family. The castle later fell into disrepair until 1903, when American multimillionaire William Waldorf Astor bought it, pouring obscene amounts of money into a massive refurbishment. The exterior is unchanged from Tudor times, but the interior is thick wit…
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Roman Painted House
A crumbling 1960s bunker is the unlikely setting for some of the most extensive, if stunted, Roman wall paintings north of the Alps. Several scenes depict Bacchus (the god of wine and revelry), which makes perfect sense as this large villa was built around AD 200 as a mansio (hotel) for travellers in need of a little lubrication to unwind.
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Dover Museum
By far the most enthralling exhibit in the town's three-storey museum is an astonishing 3600-year-old Bronze Age boat, discovered here in 1992. Vaunted as the world's oldest-known seagoing vessel, it measures a thumping great 9.5m by 2.4m and is kept in a huge, low-lit, climate- controlled glass box.
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Grand Shaft
The easily dizzied may prefer to avoid the Grand Shaft, a unique 43m triple staircase cut into the chalky white cliffs as a short cut for troops during the Napoleonic Wars. Call the tourist office before arriving as it doesn't open every year.
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Margate Caves
The 1000-year-old Margate Caves are closed due to subsidence, but keep an eye out for them re-opening. There is a church, smugglers’ refuge, dungeon, cave paintings and some witty (if not 100% proven) historical explanations.
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Shell Grotto
Margate's unique attraction is this mysterious, subterranean grotto discovered in 1835. It's a claustrophobic collection of rooms and passageways embedded with millions of shells arranged in symbol-rich mosaics. It has inspired feverish speculation over the years but presents few answers; some think it a 2000-year-old pagan temple, others an elaborate 19th-century hoax. Either way, it's an exquisite place worth seeing.
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Whitstable Museum & Gallery
This modest museum has glass cases examining Whitstable's oyster industry, the Crab & Winkle Railway, which once ran from Canterbury, and the local fishing fleet, as well as a corner dedicated to the actor Peter Cushing, star of several Hammer Horror films and the town's most famous resident, who died in 1994.
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Turner Contemporary
Due to open in spring of 2011, this long-awaited and much-delayed gallery will highlight the town's links with the artist JMW Turner. The state-of-the-art building was recently under construction on the site of the seafront guesthouse where Turner used to stay. The gallery is set to become East Kent's top attraction and the first exhibition is expected to focus on Turner and his relationship with Margate.
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Tom Thumb Theatre
Just over a mile along the seafront heading east into Cliftonville, this recently reopened theatre with its titchy stage and just 58 seats is thought to be the world's smallest working theatre.
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Ramsgate Maritime Museum
More than 600 ships have been wrecked on the notorious Goodwin Sands off this stretch of coast, and an intriguing assortment of loot from their barnacled carcasses fills the town's 19th-century clock tower near the harbour. Here, too, is a line marking Ramsgate's meridian (the town once had its own Ramsgate Mean Time almost 6 minutes ahead of GMT).
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Willesborough Windmill
Built in 1869 by Ashford millwright J Hill, the Willesborough Windmill is an octagonal white smock mill coupled onto a two-storey, redbrick base with an attached miller's cottage. A lottery grant awarded in 2006 means the 'sweeps' (sails) will be restored. The sweeps stopped turning in the late 1930s due to competition with the local roller flour mills.
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Museum of Kent Life
Ah, ye olde times. It's easy to mock the good people of Cobtree's open-air museum. They style their fairs as 'fayres' and go round with greenery on their heads. This painstaking recreation of pre-modern rural life is so gobsmackingly idyllic that it borders on twee. Still, arrive by river boat among orchards and small farm animals for a pretty, pleasant day.
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Maidstone Carriage Museum
If the old pumpkin-&-mice trick isn't summoning your carriage of choice, then this museum is for you. Horse-drawn vehicles from the magnificent to the mundane, from sedan chairs to ice-cream carts, are here thanks to 12-time Maidstone mayor, Sir Garrard Tyrwhitt-Drake. When his collection went public in 1946 it was one of a kind and it's still among the best.
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Leeds Castle
Often tagged the world's most romantic castle, this immense picture-book pile will impress. While it looks formidable from the outside it's really a bit of a 'ladies castle'. Home to a who's who of medieval queens, the castle's last owner - Anglo-American heiress, Lady Baillie - used it as a party pad to invite the likes of Errol Flynn and Douglas Fairbanks.
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Brockhill Country Park
With excellent views to the English Channel, Brockhill Country Park is part of an estate dating back to Norman times. A large grassy valley is bisected by the Brockhill Stream as it makes its way to the Royal Military Canal at Hythe. The park has two sign posted trails. The rich mosaic of plants provides shelter for many beautiful butterflies.
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Biddenden Vineyards
Kent's oldest commercial vineyard was established in 1969. As well as a range of wines, traditional Kentish Ciders have also been made here for over 20 years - together with farm pressed apple juices. There's also a coffee shop open daily.
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