The buried foundations of a small round chapel on Dover's Western Heights, linked by name and by legend to the Knights Templar
Open accessfree to visit at any reasonable time
Substantial ruinsruined, but plenty survives above ground
A small chapel with an unusual round nave, echoing the round churches the Knights Templar built elsewhere, including their more complete example in London, once stood on Western Heights, Dover; only the low outline of its foundations survives today. The order arose in the 1100s to protect Christian pilgrims making the journey to Jerusalem during the Crusades, and was suppressed in 1312. The link to this particular chapel is circumstantial, though — the Templars are known to have left Dover by about 1185, and English Heritage itself calls the connection tenuous, favouring an alternative theory that it was actually a plain roadside shrine on the old road to Folkestone.
In local tradition, King John submitted to the pope’s representative here in 1213, ending a long dispute with Rome, though the meeting almost certainly took place instead at the Templars’ other Kent church, a few miles away at Temple Ewell. The foundations themselves were uncovered in the early 19th century during the digging of the Western Heights defences, and only their flint and mortar core survives, free to look round whenever you’re passing; Dover Castle is a mile or so northeast if you want to make a day of the coastal forts.
