A Day Out in Dover with Teens
In planning our trip, we were determined to spend at least one day outside of London. The big question was where??? There are really too many choices:
- Oxford — historic university and Harry Potter sites
- Cambridge — historic university and punting on the river
- Bath — beautiful town, Roman sites
- Stonehenge — because Stonehenge
- Stratford-on-Avon — because Shakespeare
We bypassed all of these more typical options and went for . . . Dover!!! Castle? Check. Beautiful scenery? Well, there are those famous cliffs. And, the big selling point? Tunnels. Lots and lots of tunnels.
So, there are tunnels at the castle and tunnels at the cliffs. Our priority was the cliff tunnels, aka the Fan Bay Deep Shelter. The shelter is a World War II tunnel complex built around 1940 to house the troops that manned the Fan Bay artillery above.
To history-geek out on you for a minute, the Dover Strait is the narrowest point in the English Channel (i.e., the closest point to France). When Germany gained control of Calais and vicinity in the Battle of France in June of 1940, it installed artillery and started shooting at ships in the English Channel. With some longer-range guns, it was actually able to hit England. Not willing to let that go unanswered, the British installed their own artillery and started returning fire. One of the artillery units was at Fan Bay.
The Fan Bay Deep Shelter housed 189 men, 75 feet underground. After the war, the shelter was forgotten by most, although there’s some evidence that locals would sneak down to party — made me wish that I’d been a Dover local as a teen. It was rediscovered by the National Trust in 2012, when they acquired the section of the cliffs that includes the tunnels. In 18 months, a group of extremely dedicated volunteers managed to excavate the tunnels (largely by hand!) and get them ready for tourism.
We found these tunnels absolutely fascinating. You strap on a helmet and headlight (not a fashion statement), then follow your guide down 125 steps into 3500 square feet of tunnels. And you think about that for a minute — 3500 square feet is the size of a large house, and that housed 189 men for four years!! (We saw no showers on this tour — you can draw your own conclusions.) The National Trust chose to leave the tunnels bare rather than try to recreate the barracks, mess hall, etc. So each visitor imagines the living conditions as best they can. One of the most evocative aspects of the tunnels is the graffiti on the walls. You can almost see the soldier: Bored? Scared? Lonely? Desperate to leave a mark? And those marks, barely decipherable, are almost all along the lines of “TJ was here”. NOTICE: AFEGIRLS WERE THERE TOO!
After the dark and dank of the cliffs, the fields and paths above the cliffs seemed even more idyllic. We took our time wandering back, enjoying the day and messing with Jonny’s head.
We had an adequate lunch at the Visitor’s’ Center then decided to walk to Dover Castle rather than call a taxi. With our heads full of the cliff top paths, we envisioned more of the same. Uh no. Definitely a utilitarian path, it is a way to get from here to there. (Side note: if we had known we were walking to the town of Dover, we likely could have found a better lunch choice there.)
The cliffs and the castle sit on two opposite hills, with the town nestled in between. I’m calling them hills, because I saw that Hugh Grant movie, and I don’t think he’s been to Dover to pronounce these “mountains”, but that’s definitely what they felt like. We walked straight down from the cliffs and then straight up to the castle. I was seriously re-thinking that taxi decision.
Having arrived, a pound or two lighter, we headed up to the castle, walked through the small museum in one of the outer buildings, then headed to the keep to explore. Dover Castle is really everything you expect a castle to be. The keep was built during the reign of Henry II in the late 1100’s. It has spooky passages and twisty stairs, all of which you can explore on your own. Some of the rooms have been “decorated” to give visitors a sense of what they might have looked like. A little cheesy, but the kids liked the thrones.
We finished our day exploring the medieval tunnels, then called a taxi to take us to the train station and headed back to London. Pretty perfect day out in Dover.
Like this post? Pin it for later!
Want more Afegirls in London?
Check out:
– Our complete one-week London itinerary.
– A recap of how we planned the London trip
– Our suggestions for food and lodging in London
– Our family’s Amazing Race competition through London
Trip Date: July 2016
Kids’ Ages: Jonny 16 & Emma 14