Ireland Scotland Travel Blog: Hever Castle in the heart of Kent

Hever Castle

The petite castle at Hever was the home of Anne Boelyn I visted the castle in advance of the release of the film, "The Other Boelyn", due to be released in 2008. Although I went to Hever in early December, the skies were clear and crisp. As you enter, you see the lake and fountains nearby. On my visit, the Christmas Faire was on, which featured many shopkeepers from France. Large wheels of Gruyere, pates, preserved meats and other gourmet treats competed for out attention. Along side where vendors with scarves, household crafts, wines and more. The choices seemed endless!

Ever mindful of my increasingly heavy luggage, I bough only a book, a gardens diary for the coming year, but the temptation to buy more was certainly there.

A short walk brought us to the house itself, a lovely small castle, surrounded by a moat, fanciful topiary and more. It was a perfect setting. The castle itself was decorated for Christmas in the tasteful medieval style. We toured the castle, marveled at the prayer books and we could not pass up the opportunity to take too many pictures of the outside, with a view from over the bridge. It was picture perfect.

Some facts about the castle:

There have been three main periods in the construction of this historic castle. The oldest part of the castle dates to 1270 and consisted of the gatehouse and a walled bailey. In the early 1500’s, the Bullen family bought the castle and added a Tudor dwelling within the walls and so it became the childhood home of its most famous inhabitant, Anne Boleyn. It later passed into the ownership of Henry’s fourth wife, Anne of Cleves. From 1557 onwards the Castle was owned by a number of families including the Waldegrave’s, the Humfreys’ and the Meade Waldo’s. Finally, in 1903, William Waldorf Astor invested time, money and imagination in restoring the Castle, building the ’Tudor Village’ and creating the gardens and lake.

The castle houses historic 16th century portraits, furniture and tapestries. Other artefacts include two magnificent Books of Hours (prayer books), both signed and inscribed by Anne Boleyn. A costumed figure exhibition in the Long Gallery adds to the atmosphere and is popular with the children The Council Chamber in the thirteenth century gatehouse contains recently acquired swords and armour which have been added to the existing collections of historic instruments of execution, torture and discipline.

Ellen McNulty is President at www.lynotttours.com >