Fine Castle

AM returned from a six-day visit to Kenilworth, a Warwickshire town dating back to before the Domesday Book.

Its population of under 24,000 belies the important role the town played in British, and more specifically English, history.

The impressive Kenilworth Castle was the scene of a six-month siege - apparently the longest in medieval English history - during the Second Barons' War.

Rebel leader Simon de Montfort had been killed at the Battle of Evesham, Worcestershire, in August 1265, but the civil war continued, and in June the following year Henry III laid siege to the rebel stronghold of Kenilworth Castle.

Impressive ruins

The defences were even more impressive in the 13th century as they included an artificial lake and a deep moat, meaning the castle was effectively on an island, linked to the mainland by a narrow causeway.

This information board gives an idea of the situation in 1266

The besiegers used stone-throwers, wooden towers and even barges brought in from Chester, but the garrison of some 1,200 soldiers held out.

View from what was the lake

Close-up of a section of the wall

Another view from the former lake

A convenient footpath encircles the castle

Eventually the garrison was starved into submission, but was allowed to surrender on generous terms, with rebel lords allowed to regain their confiscated lands on payment of heavy fines proportionate to each man's involvement in the rebellion.