Kenilworth Castle

Kenilworth's defence was water: dams held a mere covering around forty hectares on the south and west sides, making it one of the strongest castles in England and the reason a siege in 1266 lasted about six months, the longest in English medieval history. Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, was given it by Elizabeth I and rebuilt lavishly for her visits, adding a tower block of glass-filled windows and, for the nineteen-day visit of 1575, a garden with an aviary, an alabaster fountain and terraces. That garden was recreated in 2009 using a long letter written by an eyewitness, one of very few Elizabethan gardens anywhere reconstructed from a contemporary description. The mere was drained in the seventeenth century after the castle was slighted, and the walls were split open where they were mined.

What you actually see

• The Elizabethan garden - rebuilt in 2009 from an eyewitness letter of 1575.
• Leicester's Building - Dudley's glass-fronted tower block for royal visits.
• The slighted walls - masonry split open when the castle was deliberately ruined.
• The drained mere - the flat ground that was once forty hectares of water.

When to go

April to October for full opening and the garden at its best; the garden is planted to an Elizabethan scheme and peaks in summer. Winter opening is weekends only at most times of year.

Honest expectations

The castle is a roofless ruin apart from the gatehouse, so most of it is open to weather. The keep interior is a shell with stairs and uneven floors. The garden is a modern reconstruction, not original fabric, which some visitors find disappointing.

Nearby

Warwick Castle is a short drive; Coventry and Stratford-upon-Avon lie either side.