The ultimate sandcastle - featuring everything you could ever want in a castle - has been built at Dover Castle, English Heritage announced (13 July) ahead of a special sandcastle building weekend at its castles across the country (21 & 22 July). As part of its #LoveCastles season, English Heritage is also calling on the public to send it photographs of their own castles and the charity is helping budding sandcastle builders by revealing its top tips for building a successful sandcastle.

English Heritage looks after 66 castles across England, more than any other organisation in the UK and it employs some of the country’s best castle experts to advise on their care and conservation. Now, that expertise has been harnessed to design the ultimate sandcastle and to inspire the public to support English Heritage’s #LoveCastles crowd-funding appeal to protect our nation’s amazing collection of castles for future generations to enjoy. To support the charity’s crowd-funding appeal, visit www.crowdfunder.co.uk/defend-our-castles.

Roy Porter, English Heritage Senior Properties Curator and creator of the ultimate castle, said: “A castle is surely one of the most awe-inspiring sights but if you look closely, all is not what it seems.  These amazing structures are a brilliant mix of ages and types, reflecting changing threats and fashions over centuries.  Part of the fun of visiting them is using a Sherlock-like eye to tease out their secrets!

“By studying hundreds of years of trial and error by the real castle builders our ultimate sandcastle contains everything you’d like to see, with each element showing off castle-building ‘perfection’ from a different era. I hope people will be inspired to build their very own ultimate sandcastle this summer – and support English Heritage to care for all our real castles so that they can continue to inspire us all for centuries to come.”

English Heritage’s ultimate sandcastle features everything from strong defensive features such as curtain walls and inner walls, crenellations or ramparts, a drawbridge and a portcullis, as well as more decorative reflections of strength and power including a gatehouse and a striking great tower.

From today, visitors to Dover Castle will be able to see the ultimate sandcastle and on one special weekend in July (21 & 22) will have the opportunity to create their own castle in sandcastle building workshops at eight sites around the country, from Dover Castle in Kent to Scarborough Castle in North Yorkshire.

Jamie Wardley, Sand in Your Eye Sand Sculptor, said: “At Sand in Your Eye we’re used to creating great, big sand sculptures all over the world, but this was definitely a once in a lifetime experience. To be able to build and sculpt the most perfect castle, not only from a visual point of view but also historically, using Roy’s research into hundreds of years’ worth of castle building history, was a real first for us. Bringing the ultimate sandcastle to life in the grounds of the real, ancient Dover Castle is something we won’t easily forget!”

The elements making up the ultimate sandcastle include:

• Outer Walls: Our castle is a concentric fortress, with two lines of walls. The outer 'curtain' walls around castles provided the first important line of defence for its inhabitants, with the thick stone walls also being reinforced by regularly-placed towers and battlements. Baronial Framlingham Castle in Suffolk was among the first to have these towers, and is also a reminder that some of the strongest castles were raised by noblemen who were frequently at war with the king, or each other.
• Inner Bailey or Inner Walls: Should the outer walls and other castle defences be compromised, the inner bailey was a strongly fortified enclosure at the heart of the castle, protecting the Great Tower and the principal accommodation ranged around it. Portchester Castle in Hampshire is a great example of a castle with an existing outer bailey, while royal Dover Castle has both inner and outer towered walls round its Great Tower, making it the mightiest medieval castle in Britain and serving as a chief inspiration for the Ultimate Castle.
• Great Tower or Keep: Perhaps most known for their classically ‘castle-shaped’ structures, keeps were important strongholds reaching their peak of development in the late 1100s. Designed specifically to be the vital last point of defence and also a showy demonstration of wealth and power, they were large stone buildings, often providing comfortable accommodation for their affluent owners. Examples of keeps which inspired the Ultimate Castle include Middleham Castle in North Yorkshire, Richmond Castle in Richmond, Rochester Castle and Dover Castle in Kent, whose keep housed a palace for the great royal castle-builder, King Henry II.
• Gatehouse: Effectively serving as the front door to the castle and the main entrance, the gatehouse was one of the most defensive parts of a castle. Positioned to protect the castle’s main point of entry, they were fortified buildings, often containing traps, metal portcullises and other methods of keeping the enemy out. But their prominence meant they were also a key point where the wealth and prestige of the castle’s owner could be displayed. Taking inspiration from outside the English Heritage collection, Roy used elements of Kent’s Tonbridge Castle’s impressive gatehouse to design this section of the castle.
• Ditch and Bank: A ditch around the circumference of a castle stopped the enemy from directly approaching the outer walls and, while kept at a distance, they could be subject to defensive fire. The defensive aim of a castle was to control and impede access and so the more layers of protection, the more security afforded to the wealthy inhabitants and their household. A great example of this is Helmsley Castle in North Yorkshire which has a wide ditch around its perimeter.

The Ultimate Sandcastle will be on display from Friday 13 July at Dover Castle, Kent until mid-August.

The Sandcastle Building Workshops (Sat 21 July – Sun 22 July) will be hosted at 8 castles around the country, including: Dover Castle in Kent, Carisbrooke Castle in Isle of Wight, Pendennis Castle in Cornwall, Kenilworth Castle and Elizabethan Garden in Warwickshire, Bolsover Castle in Derbyshire, Framlingham Castle in Suffolk, Scarborough Castle in North Yorkshire and Warkworth Castle and Hermitage in Northumberland. The workshops are available on a first come, first served basis for a £2 donation to the #LoveCastles appeal.

Sandcastle Competition: To celebrate our #LoveCastles season, we are asking the public across the country to build a sandcastle this summer, wherever they are, be it a beach in Margate or Malaga. To be in with a chance of winning a stay in one of our historic holiday cottages amongst a host of other prizes, the public need only build a sandcastle, place one of our #LoveCastles flags (available by £1 donation to our Castles appeal at our sites) on top, and share their pictures on our Facebook, Instagram or by uploading it onto our Castles webpage: http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/castles/

English Heritage's Top 10 Sandcastle Building Tips:

1. Use wet sand - the sand must be wet, it isn't possible to add too much water!
2. Make a big mound in the shape of a volcano with a flat top and rim. Pour a bucket of water in then vibrate it with your fingers like you're playing the piano.
3. Use your hands to compact and sculpt.
4. Use a wooden ruler to carve the sand into the shape of the castle you want.
5. Pinch sand together between your hands to form a wall all around your castle.
6. Build mud pie towers to defend your wall - build the towers up in layers, then shave the edges with the ruler
7. For the battlements, put some very wet sand on the back of your spade and pat it with your hand, adding a little dry sand to help it harden, then cut out small cubes with a ruler and place them on top of your castle.
8. To make a drawbridge cover one hand with wet sand, give it a pat with your other hand, and then - carefully - slide your hand from underneath the sand.
9. Detail your castle to make arrow loops, doors and windows.
10. Decorate your castle with shells and then top off your creation with an English Heritage #LoveCastles flag.

For more information, visit http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/castles