Charles Gray created a walk with “View” using the north and east remains of the Castle ramparts. The view looking North from the North rampart near his Summer House into the lower part of Castle Park, is still spectacular today. In the distance beyond the trees is the Roman wall that still surrounds most of the city centre. In the middle distance you can see a blue board, behind which are the remains of Roman town houses uncovered in the early 20th century. The plan of one of them can still be seen here, but the other ones were reburied.
In front is a wall that marked the boundary of Gray’s garden and immediately below you at the bottom of the rampart is a sunken garden. This was originally part of a ditch dug by the Normans when they built the castle. The earth from it was used to build up the rampart. Grey landscaped it and intended originally to create a Venice style water garden with a canal, but the soil is pure sand here so it would not hold water. So instead, he created a sunken garden. This now forms part of the park and is called the Avignon Garden, as that is one of the places Colchester is twinned with.