Top historic sites in Isle of Wight

Carisbrooke Castle

Carisbrooke Castle is a historic motte-and-bailey castle located in the village of Carisbrooke (near Newport), Isle of Wight, England. The may have been occupied in pre-Roman times. A ruined wall suggests that there was a building there in late Roman times. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle mentions that Wihtgar, cousin of King Cynric of Wessex, died in AD 544, and was buried there. The Jutes may have taken over the fort ...
Founded: 12th century | Location: Newport, Isle of Wight, United Kingdom

Osborne House

Osborne House is a former royal residence in East Cowes, Isle of Wight. The house was built between 1845 and 1851 for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert as a summer home and rural retreat. Albert designed the house himself, in the style of an Italian Renaissance palazzo. The builder was Thomas Cubitt, the London architect and builder whose company built the main facade of Buckingham Palace for the royal couple in 1847. An e ...
Founded: 1845-1851 | Location: East Cowes, United Kingdom

Yarmouth Castle

Yarmouth Castle is an artillery fort built by Henry VIII in 1547 to protect Yarmouth Harbour on the Isle of Wight from the threat of French attack. Just under 30 m across, the square castle was initially equipped with 15 artillery guns and a garrison of 20 men. It featured an Italianate 'arrow-head' bastion on its landward side; this was very different in style from the earlier circular bastions used in the Devi ...
Founded: 1547 | Location: Yarmouth, United Kingdom

Newport Minster

Saints Thomas Minster or Newport Minster is civically recognised as the main Anglican church on the Isle of Wight. Unusually, it is dedicated to both Thomas Becket and Thomas the Apostle. The original late 12th-century church was dedicated to St Thomas of Canterbury (Thomas Becket) (1118–1170). Later, under the rule of King Henry VIII of England (1509–1547), when Becket was declared to have been a traitor, the Ca ...
Founded: 1854-1855 | Location: Newport, Isle of Wight, United Kingdom

The Needles Batteries

The Needles Batteries are two military batteries built above the Needles stacks to guard the West end of the Solent. The field of fire was from approximately West South West clockwise to Northeast and they were designed to defend against enemy ships. The Old Battery was constructed between 1861 and 1863. It was equipped with six 7-inch Armstrong rifled breechloading guns. These were replaced by four 7-inch and two ...
Founded: 1861 | Location: England, United Kingdom

Brading Roman Villa

Brading Roman Villa was a Roman courtyard villa which has been excavated and put on public display in Brading on the Isle of Wight. In 1879, a farmer called Mr Munns struck a buried mosaic floor while making holes on his land for a sheep pen. Captain Thorp of Yarbridge, who was in the area looking for Roman antiquities, helped Mr Munns uncover the Gallus panel the next day. By spring 1880, all of the site on Mr Mun ...
Founded: 1st century AD | Location: Brading, United Kingdom

Bembridge Windmill

Knowle Mill, better known today as Bembridge Windmill, is a Grade I listed preserved tower mill at Bembridge, Isle of Wight. It was built c. 1700. It was painted by Turner in 1795. The mill was working by wind until 1913, having only been used for grinding animal feed after 1897. The mill was restored in 1935 and again in 1959, the latter restoration being funded by public subscription. In 1962 the mill was taken over by ...
Founded: 1700 | Location: Bembridge, United Kingdom

Quarr Abbey

Quarr Abbey is a monastery between the villages of Binstead and Fishbourne on the Isle of Wight in southern England. The Grade I listed monastic buildings and church, completed in 1912, are considered some of the most important twentieth-century religious structures in the United Kingdom. They were constructed from Belgian brick in a style combining French, Byzantine and Moorish architectural elements. In the vi ...
Founded: 1132/1912 | Location: Ryde, United Kingdom

St George's Church

St George's Church is a parish church located in Arreton, Isle of Wight. The church is medieval and the earliest traces are from the Norman period. Arreton's Church of St George is renowned. Part of this church dates from the 12th century. The church features a Saxon wall and a Burma Star window. The short tower with its unique buttresses contains a ring of 6 bells the oldest of which was cast in 1589. The church has an ...
Founded: 12th century | Location: Arreton, United Kingdom

St Mary's Church

St Mary"s Church dates from the twelfth century. At this church the Rev. Legh Richmond is thought to have originated the now globally popular idea of using boards with movable numbers to indicate hymn numbers during church services. The 13th-century tower is of a very unusual style in that it is built on four piers at the entrance to the church. This is one of only four in examples in Britain. The tower contains a ri ...
Founded: 12th century | Location: Brading, United Kingdom

St Catherine's Oratory

St. Catherine"s Oratory is a medieval lighthouse on St. Catherine"s Down, above the southern coast of the Isle of Wight. It was built by Lord of Chale Walter de Godeton (sometimes spelled 'Goditon') as an act of penance for plundering wine from the wreck of St. Marie of Bayonne in Chale Bay on 20 April 1313. The tower is known locally as the 'Pepperpot' because of its likeness. It is Britain ...
Founded: 1314 | Location: Niton, United Kingdom

The Longstone

The Longstone is a megalithic monument near the village of Mottistone, close to the south west coast of the Isle of Wight. It is the only megalithic monument on the Island. The Longstone consists of two pieces of local greensand sandstone probably from a vein 100 metres away. The larger stands at 3.9 metres and the smaller lies at its foot. They are on the edge of a wood in small fenced enclosure just off Strawberry ...
Founded: 4000 BCE | Location: Newport, Isle of Wight, United Kingdom

Featured Historic Landmarks, Sites & Buildings

Historic Site of the week

Château de Foix

The Château de Foix dominates the town of Foix. An important tourist site, it is known as a centre of the Cathars. Built on an older 7th-century fortification, the castle is known from 987. In 1002, it was mentioned in the will of Roger I, Count of Carcassonne, who bequeathed the fortress to his youngest child, Bernard. In effect, the family ruling over the region were installed here which allowed them to control access to the upper Ariège valley and to keep surveillance from this strategic point over the lower land, protected behind impregnable walls.

In 1034, the castle became capital of the County of Foix and played a decisive role in medieval military history. During the two following centuries, the castle was home to Counts with shining personalities who became the soul of the Occitan resistance during the crusade against the Albigensians. The county became a privileged refuge for persecuted Cathars.

The castle, often besieged (notably by Simon de Montfort in 1211 and 1212), resisted assault and was only taken once, in 1486, thanks to treachery during the war between two branches of the Foix family.

From the 14th century, the Counts of Foix spent less and less time in the uncomfortable castle, preferring the Governors' Palace. From 1479, the Counts of Foix became Kings of Navarre and the last of them, made Henri IV of France, annexed his Pyrrenean lands to France.

As seat of the Governor of the Foix region from the 15th century, the castle continued to ensure the defence of the area, notably during the Wars of Religion. Alone of all the castles in the region, it was exempted from the destruction orders of Richelieu (1632-1638).

Until the Revolution, the fortress remained a garrison. Its life was brightened with grand receptions for its governors, including the Count of Tréville, captain of musketeers under Louis XIII and Marshal Philippe Henri de Ségur, one of Louis XVI's ministers. The Round Tower, built in the 15th century, is the most recent, the two square towers having been built before the 11th century. They served as a political and civil prison for four centuries until 1862.

Since 1930, the castle has housed the collections of the Ariège départemental museum. Sections on prehistory, Gallo-Roman and mediaeval archaeology tell the history of Ariège from ancient times. Currently, the museum is rearranging exhibits to concentrate on the history of the castle site so as to recreate the life of Foix at the time of the Counts.