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Upnor Castle, Kent

Upnor Castle was built in 1589 on the orders of Queen Elizabeth the First, as a means of defending Chatham dockyard, and warships anchored in the Medway. Upnor Castle's big moment came in June 1667 when Admiral de Ruyter led a daring Dutch raid up the Medway. Charles The Second had reluctantly agreed to engage in a naval war with Holland at the time, as part of a struggle for trading supremacy. The war did not go well, with the navy chronically under funded. The diarist Samuel Pepys in his role as a senior naval administrator would inflate costs in an attempt to get more money out of Parliament. When the Dutch came up the Medway in 1667 they met little resistance, and penetrated all the way up to Chatham. In the process they destroyed much of the English fleet, and took the navy's flag ship, the Royal Charles, the very ship that had brought Charles back from exile when he was restored to the throne in 1660. The two day Dutch attack finally ended after gun fire from Upnor and a battery on the opposite river bank finally began inflicting damage on the Dutch ships. In his diary Pepys said that the castle gunners "shot until they hardly had a gun left." An effective audio visual display at Upnor Castle describes the battle.

 

The castle is in the charming little village of Upnor, which until the 1930s was a miniature resort centred on a river beach. Upnor's time as a resort ended when the Admiralty closed the beach for the duration of the Second World War. Upnor, however, remains a lovely little village, and offers a number of places to eat and drink.

Opening Times: The Castle is open daily from April 1st to September 30th 10am to 6pm and from 1st to 31st October 10am to 4pm. Last admission is 45 minutes before closing.

Directions: Upnor is just off the A289. Turn right onto the Upnor Road, about a quarter of a mile after the Medway tunnel. Click here for an interactive road and satellite map centred on Upnor Castle.

Access: wheelchair access to some of the grounds would be possible, but there are steep slopes. The castle itself is largely inaccessible.

 

 

Contact: Medway Visitor Centre

Telephone: 01634 402276