[p.107] Restormel Castle, Cornwalldetails

[Picture: Restormel Castle, the Main Gate]
previous image
up

[p.107] Restormel Castle, Cornwall, in Restormel, Lostwithiel, Cornwall, England more

castles, ruins, entrances


Explore

Image title:

[p.107] Restormel Castle, Cornwall

Taken from

Status:

Out of copyright (called public domain in the USA), hence royalty-free stock image for all purposes usage credit requested
Please do not redistribute without permission, since running this site is expensive.

Notes:


The Main Gate.

See also Grose’s Antiquities for another picture of Restormel Castle.

I had mis-labeled this illustration as Restormal, although the spelling in the URI was correct.

[..] 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)

Liam’s photos of Restormel Castle


Keywords:

Place shown:

Photographer:

Filename:

RestormelCastle-TheMainGate-142x200.jpg

Comment:

Download:

Similar images: