Crumbled: Knepp Castle Star Trails

The ruins of Knepp Castle tell a story of gradual decay—what was once a proud medieval fortress near Dial Post in West Sussex now stands as a single tower and crumbling walls, slowly returning to the earth. On the same December night I photographed Amberley Castle, I drove to Knepp to capture these ruins under the star-filled sky, knowing the contrast between the weathered stone and the eternal stars would be striking.

Knepp Castle's history is fragmented, much like its remaining structure. Built in the 12th century, it was later the seat of the de Braose family, but by the 16th century it was already in ruins. Today, only the keep and fragments of walls survive, standing in misty fields that are now part of the famous Knepp rewilding estate—one of England's most ambitious wildlife restoration projects.

That December night, a low mist had settled across the valley, adding this ethereal atmosphere to the scene. The ruins emerged from the fog like ghostly sentinels, their broken walls illuminated by distant lights. I used my RF 15-35mm lens at its widest 15mm to capture both the crumbling tower reaching upward and the full expanse of star trails wheeling above. Over 83 minutes, I captured 192 exposures of 25 seconds each at ISO 500 and f/2.8.

The mist complicated the shoot—moisture kept forming on my lens, requiring constant vigilance and careful wiping between sequences. But it also created this haunting quality, the fog swirling around the base of the ruins while the stars traced their paths through clear sky above. Stacking 192 frames revealed these circular trails centered on Polaris, the North Star that has guided travelers for millennia while Knepp Castle slowly crumbled beneath it.

There's something poignant about photographing ruins under star trails—the castle that stood for centuries is now falling apart, yet the stars continue their nightly rotation exactly as they did when Knepp was newly built 900 years ago. The rewilding project around these ruins represents a different kind of timeline, returning the land to its wild state after centuries of agriculture.

When you look at this photograph, I want you to feel that contrast—standing in the misty West Sussex countryside watching the last tower of Knepp Castle reach toward star trails that have wheeled above this spot since long before the castle was built, and will continue long after the last stones have fallen.