After Englands civil war Oliver Cromwell decided that Corfe Castle was a Royalist stronghold that had to be eliminated, so nearly a year was spent in mining the foundations and packing them with gunpowder; and in 1645 when the roar that echoed through the valleys of Purbeck subsided, the castle emerged from the smoke and dust exactly as we see it today.

The first impression conveyed by the grim ruins of the castle is difficult to describe. After ten centuries they still possess all the features that went into the making of a medieval fortress. The large conical hill on which the castle is perched is a natural formation of hard chalk. On either side of the castle are hills which form even better view points, and from which the castle itself looks like some old fortress of faery lore.