Domestic Life

The medieval visitor would have walked across a timber drawbridge over the wide shallow moat and into the gatehouse, which was built when the curtain walls were heightened in the late 11th to early 12th centuries.

The inner courtyard as it might have appeared in the 12th century, with the hall buildings on the right and the well and Great Kitchen on the left © English Heritage The ruins of the hall and its forebuilding are straight ahead of the main entrance. Eynsford Castle is unusual because it did not have a keep or great tower; the principal domestic apartments were therefore situated on the first floor of the hall building.

To the left of the main entrance there are ruins of both the well, which was the castle's main water supply, and the Great Kitchen. The kitchen was built between 1150 and 75 and remained in use until the castle was abandoned in 1312.

Plan of Eynsford Castle © English Heritage There are three openings in the wall,  the remains of garderobes or privies, which discharged into the moat below. There would have been timber outbuildings between the garderobes and the kitchen.

Eynsford Castle had an outer bailey to the south east which would have contained further buildings, but very little is known about them or the extent of the outer bailey.