Thursday 25 February 2016

Thursday.


Just got back from a few days away. Drove up to the Norfolk Coast on Monday. Stayed at a farmhouse a few hundred yards from the North Sea, near Happisberg (pronounced Hazeburgh - this is in accordance with the one invariable rule of English pronunciation, which is, of course, to confuse foreigners !).  Just been looking through the photos taken, and really, instead of round towered churches in abundance, huge fields and early flowers, decided to concentrate on this one building. It is Burgh Castle, built a few miles inland from what is now Great Yarmouth. It was built by the Romans circa the year 300 A.D. and abandoned a century later, i.e. about fifty years before the Romans deserted us to the mercies of uncivilised Angles, Saxons and Norsemen. The side of this incredible building nearest to the broad river, which was the harbour of the 'castle' has long since fallen into the river, but the other three walls are still standing, much as the Romans left them.


They are around fifteen feet high, which is roughly the original height of them.


The place is known as Burgh Castle, but it is not so much a castle, as the town walls of a fairly large, well organised,  settlement.

There is a circular walk of around a mile to get from the car park to the 'Castle' then back to the Car Park, via the round towered Church. I warn you though, it is what used to be known as a 'Norfolk mile'. There were very few people about, and we had the place more or less to ourselves. Well worth the effort.  There are a good many Castles along the Suffolk coast, and I've always wanted to visit this one, which is easily the earliest of them. And we've finally done it.

I'm now going to have a look at Burgh Castle on Google, and will amend any details I've got wrong.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Just been checking Google, and it seems that I've got the facts roughly right. It used to be said that the turrets along the walls and on the corners were used to mount roman catapults, but this seems doubtful.

Pat said...

A good walk to do I should think. The sea looks a trifle turbulent.