Carisbrooke Castle

Carisbrooke sits on a chalk spur above Newport and has been fortified since the Roman period, with a Norman motte, a twelfth-century shell keep and Elizabethan artillery bastions added in 1587 against the Armada threat. Charles I was held here from November 1647 until September 1648, before being taken to trial and execution; he twice tried to escape and on the first attempt stuck fast in a window, having measured the opening for his head but not his shoulders. His daughter Elizabeth died at the castle aged fourteen in 1650. The well house holds a wheel of 1587, four and a half metres across, which donkeys walk inside to raise water from a shaft fifty metres deep; the castle keeps a small herd, works them briefly on rotation and retires them, and the demonstration runs several times a day.

What you actually see

• The donkey well - a 1587 treadwheel worked by donkeys in short daily shifts.
• The Charles I rooms - where the king was held and where he failed to escape.
• The Norman keep - a shell keep on the motte, reached by seventy-one steps.
• The Elizabethan bastions - artillery earthworks added against the Armada.

When to go

April to September for full opening and the donkey demonstrations; the castle runs reduced winter hours. The keep climb is exposed and the hilltop windy.

Honest expectations

The donkey demonstration is short and the animals work only a few minutes each; visitors expecting a long display are disappointed, which is the point of the welfare policy. Interiors are sparse. Ferry costs to the island are high.

Nearby

Newport is a mile away; Osborne House and the Needles lie north and west.