Arundel Cathedral And Arundel Castle

Two years ago today, on August 5, 2008, we visited Arundel.

The town of Arundel lies on the banks of The River Arun. On hills high above the town are situated Arundel’s two most notable landmarks, Arundel Cathedral and Arundel Castle.

We visited Arundel Cathedral, a beautiful 19th-Century recreation of a French Gothic cathedral, in the morning.


In the afternoon, we visited Arundel Castle, the second-largest castle in the British Isles and home of the Howard family, Britain’s most exalted and most distinguished family after The Royal Family. Arundel Castle, when it is open to the public, is open only during afternoon hours.

Arundel is not a large town, and it appears not to receive large numbers of foreign visitors, perhaps because it is somewhat out-of-the-way.

There were very few visitors to Arundel Cathedral on the morning of our visit and, based upon accents we overheard, no visitors but ourselves were Americans.

Arundel Castle, with very constricted hours, had a significant number of visitors on the afternoon of our visit, but all appeared to be British. We heard no American accents—and no persons speaking German or French—during an entire afternoon exploring Arundel Castle.

Portions of the castle very seldom open to the public were open on the afternoon of our visit, and we suspected that the large number of British visitors was a function of the special opening.