Arundel Castle: a proper lived-in castle, if you time it around the noon room opening
Unlike a lot of castles this one is still lived in and richly furnished, and the gardens are genuinely good. The catch is the timings: the staterooms do not open until noon, so plan the morning around the keep and the gardens and save the house for the afternoon.
Why it's worth it
It is a real, lived-in castle. Nearly a thousand years in, still the seat of the Duke of Norfolk, and it shows. The staterooms are furnished and hung with Van Dyck, Gainsborough and Canaletto, not roped-off empty halls. This is a house someone still uses, which most castles at this price are not.
The Collector Earl's Garden earns the ticket on its own. The formal garden opened in 2008 is the surprise of the visit, all pavilions, fountains and hot planting. Do only the gardens and the keep on the cheaper ticket and you would still leave happy.
Climb the keep first. The Norman motte and shell keep open at ten, well before the house, and the view over the Arun valley and out towards the sea is the best thing here on a clear morning. Do it before the rooms open at noon.
Why it might not be
The house does not open until noon. Arrive at ten expecting the staterooms and you will be waiting two hours. It is less a flaw than a thing to plan around: gardens and keep in the morning, the house after lunch.
Full price is £31. The top ticket with the bedrooms is not cheap, and on the big event days the usual discounts drop away. If the interior is not your thing, the £17 gardens ticket is the honest better buy.
Peak days bring the coaches. It runs an active group and coach programme, and the medieval jousting week in late July is the busiest of the year. Wonderful if you want the spectacle, slow going if you wanted a quiet wander.
The practical bit
About 1h30 from south London on a good run, longer in summer traffic, down the A3 and A24 or the M23 then the A27, which drops you right by the town. Park at the Mill Road pay and display opposite the castle entrance; there is no castle car park of its own.
Direct from London Victoria to Arundel with Southern, about 1h20 to 1h30, then a flat ten to fifteen minute walk up into the town and the castle. One of the easier castle days to do without a car.
Open Wednesday to Sunday, roughly April to the start of November, closed Mondays outside August. Come for the ten o'clock keep and gardens, break for lunch in the town, and take the staterooms when they open at noon. Gone by mid-afternoon, or pair it with the cathedral across the road.
Some readers do this as a driven day trip: picked up in London, Arundel by half ten, the keep and gardens, lunch in the town, home by evening. The car waits, nobody checks the parking app. We run these through Klass Chauffeur, the sister firm that keeps this blog going.
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