[p.107] Restormel Castle, Cornwall details

“[..] the castle which dominated the valley which discharges into the Fowey estuary—the next fiord [sic] westward from the Looes—is in very tolerable preservation, no doubt owing to the fact that it is nearly two miles from a town, and in a rather inaccessible position.

This is Restormel, a very complete specimen of a late Norman castle. [The English Heritage site says around 1300 for the present structure, which would be awfully late for Norman—Liam] It lies up-stream from Lostwithiel, the last place to which the tide water reached, approached by a side-road (pleasantly free from motors and excursionists) under the edge of the towering woods. The castle is at present [1930?] completely surrounded by lofty foliage, and only comes into sight when the visitor has climbed the hill top. It is an almost perfectly circular shell-keep structure—110 feet in diameter—the summit of the height being encircled by a deep ditch, above which rises the double wall of the broad shell – which was destitute of a motte—the whole hill was its “motte” indeed.

It would be exactly circular, but that the gate on the West side, and a chapel on the east, project some twenty feet, and impinge on the ditch. Beyond the latter there seem to be no outbuildings or external defences whatever.” (p. 109)