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Virtual Castle Rising

1 of 6: Welcome to the virtual tour of Castle Rising.

You can walk up to the gatehouse, see the portculis open and explore the interia area of the castle if you have the VRML plug-in installed. There are detail on the right of this page explaining how to install the plug-in and how to move around in VRML worlds.

2 of 6: This is what Castle Rising may have looked like in the past. A stone wall on top of the huge mounds of earth surrounds the bailey. Inside the bailey is the large keep and to the north is the Norman church. Other smaller building would have been located in the bailey, some of stone and some of wood. Remains of a stone building are visible at Rising just to the south of the keep, but they are not shown on the reconstruction.

The castle is surrounded by a large ditch and other earthworks. These can be explored if you load the the VRML model.

3 of 6: The gatehouse is Norman and was built in around 1140. There would have been a room above the entrance where the portcullis would have lifted into. Most castles have only one entrance, defended by a strong gatehouse. Having a strong gatehouse was important as if attackers could get through the gatehouse they could then take the whole castle.

If you cross the bridge in the VRML model the portcullis will automatically rise to allow you to enter.

4 of 6: The first thing you see as you leave the gatehouse is the castle's keep.
5 of 6: This is the castle's bailey. The bailey is the open area inside the castle walls. The bailey at Castle Rising contained not only the large keep and outer buildings, but also a church. The church could date back to 1100 and was probably painted white.

The wall around the edge of the castle are known as the curtain wall and at Castle Rising had several towers.

6 of 6: The keep was the residence within the castle for the Lord and his family. The entrance to the keep was via a doorway in the forebuilding and up a flight of stairs to the main hall. The forebuilding at Castle Rising is richly decorated indicating that the owner was extremely wealthy. As well as the the main hall, the keep had a basement for storage, a kitchen and Chapel.

Please install the VRML plug-in and take time to explore the castle and its surrounding earthworks. See the instuctions on the right of this page for details.


Click here to explore castle

To explore this virtual reconstruction you will require a VRML plug-in. There is a free plug-in available from ParallelGraphics and is easy to install. Follow the instructions to begin.

 Plug-In download Instructions
 Help on navigating VRML worlds.
Free Download - Get Cortona VRML Client
Click to install
 Castle Rising details

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