4 Forts to Explore in Kent

Canterbury was fortified by the Roman in the third century AD. These walls were still standing in the late 1060s when the Normans built a motte-and-bailey fortification there. This was replaced with Canterbury Castle in the late eleventh century. The town walls were rebuilt in the fourteenth century. The large 80 feet high keep, the third largest in England after Dover and Rochester, was rebuilt in stone between 1086 and 1120 close to the Roman Worthgate.

Reculver Towers are a striking pair of 12th-century church towers built within a Roman fort on the very edge of the Wantsum Channel. The most dominant features of this site are the 12th-century towers of the former monastic church, which stand out on the skyline for miles around. Coastal erosion has brought the edge of the beach to the towers, which act as a navigation marker for shipping. Much of the site has now been lost to the sea.

Richborough is a key site in the history of Roman Britain, used during the entire length of the occupation from the invasion of AD 43 until the end of Roman rule around 410. . Explore the huge stone walls which mark the site of this Saxon Shore fortress, the rolling defensive ditches and impressive foundations showing the scale of this once bustling Roman settlement. The site is now under the care of English Heritage.

It was a simple fort of earth and timber, thrown up – like hundreds of others – by Norman invaders for self-protection soon after they arrived in 1066. The walls and magnificent gatehouse were added in the 13th century. The defences were badly damaged after the Civil War and it was further demolished in the 1730's although the lower part of the southern walls are still visible along the river. The site was purchased by the local council in 1900, who now use the mansion as offices, and who made t