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During the last year I’ve spent a lot of imagination time at Windsor Castle. A good chunk of my new Essex Dogs novel, Lion Hearts, is set there. And I’m planning to write about Windsor in my next nonfiction book - on which, more soon.
So this morning, since it was a warm spring day and I was in the mood for a couple of hours spent peacefully wandering, I paid the castle a call in person. It was looking pristine: lush green lawns bathed in sunshine, walls and towers dazzling, St George’s chapel cool and airy inside.
Here are a few highlights from my little tour - from the tombs of monarchs as illustrious as Henry VIII and Elizabeth II to rare fragments of stone that speak to the castle’s lost past nearly one thousand years ago.
I had a marvellous time. I hope you enjoy sharing the experience.
The Round Tower
Windsor Castle is designed to be seen. (In fact, rather like the late Queen, it has to be seen to be believed.) One of the most brilliant things about it is the way that the aspect of the castle changes and develops over the course of the 2.5 mile ‘Long Walk’ until the point that you reach the ancient heart of the castle - the Round Tower. This is the heir to what was once the castle in its entirety: a secure keep on top of a huge motte. Today that motte is decorated with tiered gardens which give an exotic flavour to the Norman austerity of the structure itself.
The Round Tower is the centrepiece to the Middle Ward, from where the castle develops in two directions. East, in the Upper Ward, great state buildings surround a lawned quadrangle; to the south-west the castle doglegs and opens out into the Lower Ward, where St George’s Chapel is the spiritual home of the modern British monarchy.
Secret Henry III
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