King Henry II built Orford castle in the 12th century for coastal defense. Orford, which at one time was as impressive as Henry's later achievements at Dover castle, now stands in splendid isolation with only its central defensive building, called a keep, remaining.

Orford represents the evolving science of castle design in the late 12th and early 13th centuries. Orford's keep was an intermediate design between the older rectangular and square keeps, that were prone to undermining, and concentric castles. Like earlier square or rectangular keeps, the entrance was well protected by a forebuilding; a feature eliminated as outer defensives became more effective. The keep has unique polygon shaped walls on the outside, cylindrical walls on the inside, with several unequal sides and three large rectangular turrets reaching 90 feet, that gave archers a wide angle of fire. The pointed windows and the chapel vaulting in the forebuilding are among the earliest known examples of Gothic architecture in England. Inside the Keep, there was a large well-lit chamber with a spiral staircase in one tower and chambers in the others. The curtain walls and mural towers, of which there were at least four, are no longer standing...