Entering the gateway the road rises rapidly. On the right is the exceedingly steep scarp, at the top of which is the bastion of the keep. On the left is the curtain of the west front. Higher up the way turns to the right, to reach the inner ward, and skirts on the left what seems to have been a formal garden, indicated by a level plot, some foundations of walls, and two alcoves, attributed to Sir John I’Anson, a rector of Corfe towards the end of the last century.
Westward of this the ward seems to have been used for offices, and in part covered over. In the north curtain is a half-round mural tower with four loops, and of one story, open at the gorge. The water-table of a double-gable roof is seen within, and the central gutter projects as a spout outside. Further on is a blocked-up arch, probably an early postern, and, still further, the seat and drain of a large garderobe, beneath an arch in the wall, 8 feet broad. Above is a plain corbel, hollowed to receive the wall-plate of a roof, and no doubt one of a series. The country people call it the gallows. A part of the south curtain of this ward is the most interesting feature of the whole structure.
First, ascending from the gate, upon the left, is the curtain. Then, upon it, a half-round mural tower with three loops, but closed, since its construction, at the gorge by a wall, in which is a small door, which led into a contiguous building. From this tower, westward, the curtain is constructed of flat stones laid in a rude but distinctly herring-bone fashion. In it are three windows and the place of a fourth. These are round-headed, 2 feet 4 inches diameter, and 3 feet 6 inches deep, splayed to 12 inches, when they terminate in a stone plate, out of which is cut a loop of 6 inches opening, and a rebate for a shutter. At present they are 3 feet 6 inches to the springing, but a part may be buried. These apertures are closed by the exterior casing of the wall. This wall at its west end seems to have been returned inwards. Both this wall and these windows have been regarded as part of the old Saxon palace, and this may well be so. They certainly appear older than the Norman work of the keep.
Westward of this old part is a walled-up doorway, with a pointed arch springing from the usual Norman flat chamfered abacus. This looks like transition Norman work. Outside it is masked by the facing. This door, the base of which is buried, seems to have been a postern, although, it must be confessed, in a most inconvenient position for such a means of egress.
The Buttavant Tower, which caps the western angle of the ward, and is a marked object in the outline of the castle, seems to have been an octagon of 7 feet in the side, internal measurement, and of considerable thickness. The casing of the lower part is gone. It had a sub-basement story, and two above this, all floored with wood. A well-stair near the gorge leads to the summit. The curtain from hence to the garderobe is destroyed.
The inner ward occupies the summit of the hill. It also is rudely triangular, the great bastion forming the apex to the west, the Gloriette bastion capping the angle to the south-east, and the obtuse angle to the north-east being formed by the curtain alone. Towards the outer and middle wards the wall is a strong revetment of masonry, crested by the curtain. Elsewhere the earth is only somewhat higher within than without the curtain.
This ward contained two gateways, the keep, the Queen’s tower and offices, and a well.
The gateway from the middle ward abutted on the northern curtain. It was probably a mere aperture in a wall, without a regular gatehouse, else it could scarcely have disappeared so completely, even under the crushing weight of the fragments of the keep.
This gate opened into a small court, on the east side of which rose the keep. A second and higher gate seems to have led into the actual ward, and to have been placed close to the foot of the exterior staircase of the keep. This gate is also completely gone. The survey by Treswell in 1586 shows where it stood.
The keep is a quadrangular tower, 60 feet square and 80 feet high, of pure Norman work. The east and west faces were strengthened with five flat pilaster strips, 5 feet 4 inches broad, 18 inches projection, and 8 feet 4 inches apart. On the north and south faces were four similar strips, placed at wider intervals. All rose from a common plinth, and died into the wall a short distance below the battlement, a small portion of which is still visible, not passing into it as at Chepstow and elsewhere, so as to panel the face.