Richborough Roman Fort

As our summer holiday is disturbed by the coronavirus, we plan to have a staycation instead to Deal.

One of the reasons we choose Deal, is because the location is on a seaside and it is quite close (about 10 miles) to our main destination of Richborough Roman Fort.

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We took a taxi ride from Deal to Richborough Roman Fort. It took us approximately 20 minutes and costs us £14. There is also a parking site near the entrance.

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As with the current pandemic, you have to pre-booked your visit. It is very easy to book the ticket. Just go to their website (English Heritage) and pay for the ticket. You will be asked to choose the date and the time of your visit.

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It is wonderful to know that this is the first point when the Romans landed in Britain in 43 AD. You can see the two ditches which are the very early foundation of the fort which dates back to AD43.

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Most of the ruins that you see were built later circa 275-285 AD.

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There are also many ditches that were built in the third century.

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It is an open space fort, so please expect it to be windy.

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There was a huge arch built in this Fort complex. I think it was about 25 metre high. It was so grand that whoever landed here will know that they entered a Roman province of Britannia.

Sadly, I am not sure where exactly the arch foundation was. Perhaps it is one of this ruins.

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There is a lovely brown reddish bricks on the wall, typical of Roman building. These are unmistakebly Roman.

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There is a small museum that you can visit. Just next door to the ticket entrance.

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It is a nice view of the round oval ditches with the inside ruins and the outer wall.

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It is interesting to see that in Roman times, the sea was just outside the Fort. But nowadays the sea is pushed back a little bit further away.

It is also interesting to note that Richborough at Roman times was a little bit like an island and the Roman built a bridge connection to the mainland. The Romans probably choose to land at Richborough because of the shore that is perfect to dock their ships.

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At the picture above you can see the trees at the back. Those were where the sea was. Also on the picture, there was a bath house present on the Fort as you can see there were bricks for underfloor heating.

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There is also an amphitheater not far from the Fort (about three minutes walk). However, we did try to visit the amphitheater but the gate to go there was lock. Unfortunately we didn’t manage to see the Richborough amphitheater. There were lack of signs of where exactly the Amphitheater is.

All in all, it is a good visit to Richborough Roman Fort. We spent about two hours there. Well worth a visit if you are in Kent area.