URPoint Details
Dogs on leads only.
Disabled parking in the village is inclined to be hilly wheelchair access to castle's outer ward through main gatehouse accessible remainder of ruins is very difficult, with a steep climb. Shop has ramped access with double doors licensed tearoom thick handled cutlery available and braille menu. Toilet key available at ticket office. Many items and surfaces may be touched.
Built mainly during the 12th and 13th century with some later additions, the castle was slighted by order of Parliament in 1646. Corfe was already a royal residence in the 10th century, when according to legend it was the home of Elfrida, the stepmother of King Edward the Martyr. It is said that she murdered him at Corfe in 978.
The oldest surviving parts of the building are fragments of an early Norman hall. Henry I relaced that hall with a stone keep. In the early 13th century King John built a range of lodgings and domestic offices, and most of the defences in the outer bailey. Henry III added Corfe's two great gatehouses. The castle's ruinous condition is not due to the passage of time, but to deliberate demolition after Royalist Parliamentarian forces besieged it during the winter of the
- Type:
- Landmark