Fodor's Expert Review Corfe Castle

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.