A digital reconstruction of Orford Castle, Suffolk, viewed from the South West, shows the castle in the early thirteenth century. Built for Henry II of England between about 1165 and 1173, the castle stood within an already thriving Suffolk port and formed part of a wider programme of development that included land reclamation on Orford Ness and the construction of St Bartholomew’s church. The castle was intended to strengthen royal authority in East Anglia and counterbalance the influence of the powerful Bigod family. Today, the principal surviving element is its distinctive polygonal keep, once enclosed by a roughly egg-shaped bailey with a stone curtain wall, ditch, and southern gatehouse approached via a causeway and bridge; most of these outer defences were lost by the 17th century. The bailey featured a symmetrical arrangement of mural towers—an advanced design later seen at Dover Castle and Framlingham Castle—but appears to have contained few permanent buildings, suggesting that accommodation was concentrated within the keep itself. Likely designed by the royal engineer Ailnoth, the keep is a geometric and architectural innovation, its plan based on a 15m-diameter circle with three projecting turrets positioned at the vertices of an equilateral triangle. Constructed from local septaria with imported Barnack and Caen stone, and originally rendered and lime-washed, it differs markedly from the typical rectangular keeps of the period.

Commissioned Work (April, 2018). Client: English Heritage Trust / Historic England

Software / Tools

Blender 3D, Cycles Render Engine, Photoshop