2 Best Sights in The South, England

One of the most dramatic ruins in Britain, Corfe Castle overlooks the picturesque gray limestone village of the same name. The present ruins are what's left of a castle begun by Henry I, son of William the Conqueror, who erected the great central keep in the early 12th century to guard the principal route through the surrounding Purbeck Hills. The outer walls and towers were added in the 1270s. Cromwell's Parliament ordered the castle to be blown up in 1646 during the Civil War, after a long siege during which its Royalist chatelaine, Lady Bankes, led its defense.

Massive earthwork ramparts on a bare sweep of Wiltshire countryside are all that remain of this impressive Iron Age hill fort, which was successively taken over by Romans, Saxons, and Normans. You can still see the ruins of a castle built by William the Conqueror in 1070 within the earthworks. The site was still fortified in Tudor times, though the population had mostly decamped in the 13th century to New Sarum, or Salisbury. Clamber over the huge banks to take in the far-reaching views to Salisbury Cathedral.