What to See in Hythe - Top Sights and Attractions

Wildlife park with a hotel and a cottage. Port Lympne Hotel & Reserve near the town of Hythe in Kent, England is set in 600 acres and incorporates the historic Port Lympne Mansion, and landscaped gardens designed by architect Sir Herbert Baker, for Sir Philip Sassoon.

The estate with an Edwardian mansion near Lympne was purchased in 1973 by John Aspinall; the intent was to solve lack of space at the nearby Howletts Wild Animal Park. It was opened to the public in 1976. Since 1984 the animal parks have been owned by a charity (The John Aspinall Foundation, currently led by Damian Aspinall). The collection is known for being unorthodox, for the encouragement of close personal relationships between staff and animals, and for their breeding of rare and endangered species. The park now includes tigers, lions, leopards, gorillas, bears, giraffes and the UK’s largest herd of black rhinos. The facility also plans to release some of the animals into the wild.

Royalty and many other famous people have stayed at the mansion at the centre of the park. The rooms are lavishly decorated and the landscaped gardens have views of Romney Marsh. Other accommodations are also provided in the Park, some in Lion Lodge, Tiger Lodge, Bear Lodge (glamping), Rhino Lodge, Treehouse Hotel, The Bubble, Hogdeer Creek, Giraffe Cottage, Giraffe Lodge (glamping), Pinewood (glamping), Wolf Lodge and Forest Hideaway. The latest accommodation options are Lion Lodge and the 20-bedroom Giraffe Hall.^[1]

Saltwood Castle is a castle in Saltwood village, one mile north of Hythe, Kent, England. Of 11th century origin, the castle was expanded in the 13th and 14th centuries. After the Norman Conquest, the castle was appropriated by the Archbishop of Canterbury Lanfranc and remained the property of the archbishops, with some interruptions, until 1540, when Thomas Cranmer was compelled to cede it to Henry VIII. The castle is reputed to have been the meeting place of the four knights who carried out the assassination of Thomas Becket in 1170. By the 19th century, it was "largely ruinous" and restorations to make portions of the castle habitable were carried out in the 1880s and 1930s. In the late 19th century, the castle was bought by an ancestor of Bill Deedes, the journalist and politician, who grew up there. In the 20th century, it was sold to Sir Martin Conway who commissioned Philip Tilden to undertake a restoration. In 1953, the castle was bought by the art historian Kenneth Clark, and then became the home of his son, the politician and diarist, Alan Clark. It remains the private home of his widow, Jane Clark. The castle is a Grade I listed building.^[3]

The Confederation of Cinque Ports is a historic group of coastal towns in Kent, Sussex and Essex. The name is Old French, meaning "five harbours".

It was originally formed for military and trade purposes, but is now entirely ceremonial. The ports lie on the western shore of the English Channel, where the crossing to the European continent is narrowest. They were:

• Hastings
• New Romney
• Hythe
• Dover
• Sandwich
• Rye, originally a subsidiary of New Romney, was raised to full status as one of the Cinque Ports after New Romney was damaged by the severe 1287 storm; its harbour silted up, and the River Rother shifted course closer to Rye. As a result, New Romney rapidly lost importance in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.