Orford Castle with adjoining quarry (Orford, Suffolk)

 castle, ruins, interesting place, scheduled ancient monument

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Plantagenet Castle (built between 1165 and 1173). Only the central tower (keep) remains intact.

The outer wall of the castle, which is believed to have been contemporary with the keep, survived largely intact until at least the beginning of the 17th century when it was recorded in a survey by John Norden. This shows a small ward around the keep, enclosed by a crenellated wall with a gatehouse on the south side and at least four rectangular mural towers. A small fragment on the north side stood until 1841, and is depicted in several 18th century prints and paintings of the castle which show clearly that it was on the central platform, close to the keep. A slot in the ground surface on this side is believed to be the trench left by the removal of masonry foundations, and substantial masonry footings are still visible on the probable site of the gatehouse.

The surrounding earthworks appear somewhat irregular as a result of later quarrying and dumping, and nothing is now of visible of the bank on the north east side, but the general outline remains clear. The surviving works define an ovoid enclosure, widest to the north, with overall maximum dimensions of c.175m north west-south east by c.143m north east-south west. The inner ditch surrounding the central platform is up 20m wide and remains open to a depth of up to c.3.5m. It is crossed to the south, opposite the site of the gatehouse, by an earthen causeway, on the western side of which can be seen the masonry footings of a bridge. The outer ditch is up to c.2.5m deep and 17m wide, while the surviving part of the bank between them ranges between 10m and 27m in width. On the north east side of the castle, part of the outer ditch has been infilled and underlies a path, but it will survive as a buried feature and is included in the scheduling. The counterscarp bank to the west and south west is up to c.8m wide and c.1m in height above the ground surface to the west. Immediately to the south west of the counterscarp are further earthworks which may relate to the castle, including an elongated hollow up to 18m wide and, beyond this, a roughly triangular platform c.2m in height above the adjacent ground surface and measuring c.65m north east-south west by c.25m.

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