Bungay Castle is a substantial 12th-century fortress erected by Hugh Bigod, a powerful Norman Earl of Suffolk, standing over 33 metres high with walls 5-7 metres thick strategically positioned in a bend of the River Waveney. Built around 1163, the castle exemplifies Norman military architecture and housed additional defensive features including massive gate towers built in 1294 by Roger Bigod, 5th Earl of Norfolk. Though besieged, mined, and slighted by royal forces during a 1173 revolt, the castle was later restored to the Bigod family before eventually reverting to Crown control and falling into ruin by 1382. Now a Grade I listed Scheduled Ancient Monument, the ruins were gifted to the townspeople of Bungay in 1987 and remain substantial evidence of medieval East Anglian power.
