Roughly 35 minutes drive from home, we arrived at Beeston Castle on a gloriously hot and sunny Sunday morning. As we got closer, the roads got more narrow, but traffic was very light so we barely made use of the lay-bys. We arrived at around 10:30, bought our tickets, and started the climb to the top of the hill.
The castle itself is situated on top of a fairly steep hill just South of Tarporley, the main entrance to the castle site which holds the shop and ticket office was only built in the mid 19th century by Baron John Tollemache around the same time that he built Peckforton Castle which is just 1.25km away and can be seen on the opposite hill.
The rest of the castle was built in the early 13th century, the outer walls are roughly a third of the way to the inner walls from the 19th century entrance through a little bit of woodland. Most of the outer gatehouse here was demolished in the 18th century so the craggy hill could be more easily accessible for quarrying. I tried to get a picture to show the slope of the hill by lining up the side of the square tower here, it’s surprisingly steep.
Just past this outer gatehouse, up a small set of stairs to the left, the area opens up. The full length of the outer wall here only covers the South-Eastern quarter of the outer ward area, since the rest of the hill is naturally fortified by the steep hill and rocky terrain. Looking out from this wall gives views all across the Cheshire countryside, the weather was so good this morning we could see for miles.
The inner walls of the castle are also visible from this area, and they look very imposing right at the top of the hill.
At the entrance to the inner gatehouse is a big ditch cut in to the stone during construction (I guess this is where they must’ve gotten a lot of the stone for the castle itself from), and a steep wooden footbridge in to the inner ward. The view looking back down the hill at this point is amazing.
On the final approach to the main castle, the full depth of the dug-out ditch really dawns on you, standing on the bridge feels very high-up.
Right at the top you can see in all directions for many miles. To the North-West we could see Chester, and to the South-South-West we could see the large circular tower of Peckforton Castle breaching the tree-line.
Inside the castle walls, there isn’t a lot left standing other than the well in the courtyard, that is apparently one of the deepest wells in any of the English castles.
Some of my favourite views though were looking out of a former window and looking out of the main gatehouse archway, using the surrounding stonework as a frame.
Before we made our way back down the hill, I decided to try my hand at taking a 360-degree panoramic photo for Google Streetview, I think it turned out pretty well.
We took a different route back down the hill to explore more of the wooded area, coming back to the outer gatehouse from the opposite direction to get some more great views.
At this point we passed a few energetic kids with already-worn-out parents, and felt glad we were on the way back down hill!
We checked out Peckforton Castle briefly, but decided there was more to see than we had time to spare today, so we’ll go back another day for a proper visit. A 5-minute drive away in Spurstow there’s a Panama Hatty’s restaurant which do some amazing food, so we decided to stop by for lunch before heading home, they served some of the best salt-and-pepper chicken wings we’ve ever had! Would definitely recommend them for a quick post-castle-lunch!
Loved the view of the towers from the wooden footbridge. Great views over Cheshire. Panoramic view was interesting, especially the disconnected red trainers!
I don’t think I’ve ever been to Beeston on such a beautiful day so you were very lucky with the weather. Fabulous views over the countryside and I think you managed to show the steepness of the route very well. Good to know Panama Hatty is still serving good food too!