St John's Tower, a 13th Century Round Tower in the Moat of Dover Castle, Kent, UK

A "rare view" of St John's Tower which is situated in the moat (ditch) at the northern end of Dover Castle. It is connected to the interior of the castle by an underground tunnel and gallery, or sousterrain, that passes beneath the Norfolk Towers, the earth-banked lower slopes of which can be seen in the upper left-hand corner:


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The photo was taken at 7.05 am on Wednesday, 25th of May, 2011, from the eastern outer moat wall. An earlier Rare view of St John's Tower, taken from near enough the same location but under different light conditions, was photographed at 11.32 am on Friday, 13th of May.

This unusual round tower effectively divides the Eastern Outer Curtain Wall (out-of-shot to the left) from the Western Outer Curtain Wall (on the far side of the tower).

The roof of a two-level caponier (alt. caponnier: fr. "chicken cage") to the right of St John's Tower connects it to the Ravelin (or Redan), a brick-lined structure, partially visible behind the trees near the right-hand edge, that had been added to the Spur by Colonel William Twiss of the Royal Engineers between 1801-1803 during the the Napoleonic Wars.

Mallard Ducks on the River Dour, South Kent College, Dover, Kent, UK

Mr and Mrs Mallard Duck out for a Sunday paddle on the River Dour at 12.42 pm, November 29th, 2009:


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The photo was taken from the pathway at the rear of Dover Town Hall near the Bowling Green Clubhouse opposite the grounds of South Kent College. The ducks are swimming upriver towards Dover Police Station on Ladywell and The Park Inn (my local pub!) on Park Place. To the right, the River Dour flows towards Pencester Gardens and finally reaches the sea at the Wellington Dock.

The entry for Mallard Ducks on the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) website states:

The mallard is a large and heavy looking duck. It has a long body and a long and broad bill. The male has a dark green head, a yellow bill, is mainly purple-brown on the breast and grey on the body. The female is mainly brown with an orange bill. It breeds in all parts of the UK in summer and winter, wherever there are suitable wetland habitats, although it is scarcer in upland areas. Mallards in the UK may be resident breeders or migrants - many of the birds that breed in Iceland and northern Europe spend the winter here.

The River Dour

The River Dour is a river in the county of Kent, in England. The river's main source rises at Watersend and it flows from the villages of Temple Ewell and River, through the village of Kearsney, to Dover. It is roughly 4km long.