The Device Forts - part 5
- jochengielen
- Jan 4
- 2 min read
Number 12: Camber Castle
Camber Castle is one of the original Device forts ordered in 1539. It resembles strongly the castles of Deal, Walmer and Sandown, however ... Deal and Walmer still survive intact today while Camber castle survives as a ruined castle in the middle of a field surrounded by nature, hikers and cows! It is under management of English Heritage but is not generally open to the public and there are no facilities. The location is close to the village of Rye and this is also the best location to park your car before hiking to the castle, be sure to wear good shoes or boots, especially in winter and rainy periods. Camber castle was built close to the shoreline but over the years, the river silted up and pushed the shore ever further away, making sure that the castle is now located more inland resulting in the loss of its importance. This is the main reason why it never saw much action and is now in a ruined state.
The castle is easy to reach from Rye trough the nature reserve via hiking trails and trough fields, sometimes very muddy areas as I found out. I went to visit this castle in February 2025 and the weather was pretty decent but a bit windy, from the outside you can clearly see the structure of the castles defenses and through the metal gate at the entrance, you can get a glimpse of the interior. The best view I got was by launching the drone and see the complete structure from the air.
Number 7: Yarmouth Castle REVISITED!
The story of Yarmouth castle can be seen in part 3, however, in April 2025 I was in the area again and decided to revisit this castle touroughly. I took the time to go see it from the outside, the best view is from Yarmouth Pier! And since the weather was good enough I decided to fly the drone over the castle and view it from the air. The next day I went back to visit it on the inside to see all the changes that were made over time from the original castle layout to the filled in bastion to form a stable gun platform in a later period. Today the castle is also part of English Heritage and open to visitors, it is small but highly recommended to visit!
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