A panoramic, photostiched view of Deal castle taken from the dry moat.
A panoramic, photostiched view of Deal castle taken from the moat. Deal Castle is a 16th-century coastal artillery fort, located in Deal, Kent, England, between Walmer Castle and the now lost Sandown Castle. It is one of the most impressive of the Device Forts or Henrician Castles built by Henry VIII between 1539 and 1540 as an artillery fortress to counter the threat of invasion, brought about by the alliance between Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and King Francis I of France in 1538. Deal Castle and its smaller neighbours, Walmer and Sandown, were intended to dominate the Downs, a sheltered area of water in the English Channel protected by the Goodwin Sands, which would have been an ideal rallying point for any invasion fleet. The three forts were initially linked by an two mile long earthen "fosse" or rampart, strengthened by three small earth "bulwarks" or forts. These earthworks were sketched by the antiquarian William Stukeley in 1725, but now no trace of them remains. The architect at Deal was probably the Bohemian engineer, Stefan von Haschenperg. The whole scheme for the defence of the Downs was completed by the autumn of 1540. Deal Castle is built of Kentish ragstone brick, and Caen stone taken from nearby religious houses after the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Whether by design or coincidence, the fortress is shaped like a Tudor rose. At the centre is a three-storeyed circular citadel, with six semicircular, slightly lower towers projecting from it. Separated by a narrow ward, a further series of six low semicircular bastions form the curtain wall. The top level of the bastions served as a platform for the heaviest guns. The whole fortress is protected by a stone revetted dry moat, 20m wide and 5m deep. Around the basement level of the bastions, runs a continuous gallery called "the rounds", which is pierced by 53 hand-gun ports or loopholes to allow the defenders to fire into the bottom of the moat.
Size: 6705px × 3262px
Location: Deal Castle, Deal, Kent, UK.
Photo credit: © John Gaffen / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: brick, caen, castle, circular, deal, dry, henry, historic, kent, kentish, moat, panorama, photostich, ragstone, revetted, stone, towers, viii
