Pendennis Castle
While Jane was in Truro with her old school 'ladies who lunch' circle in mid-December 2004, I drove to Swanpool beach and walked into Falmouth to visit Pendennis Castle for the first time. Weather was dire, hence the poor sunless photo. With its counterpart across Carrick Roads at St. Mawes, the original castle was built by Henry VIII to guard Falmouth harbour. Vast encircling ramparts and bastions were built by Sir Walter Raleigh in Elizabethan times and updating (and use) continued right up to the 2nd World War, with eventual public opening in 1956. The castle has survived assault from the sea but, during the Civil Wars, was taken by siege. There are things to see of all periods: the original Tudor castle, the Elizabethan ramparts and bastions, Napoleonic War fortifications, late 19th century batteries that housed 'disappearing guns', big guns and rapid firing guns, and a World War II Observation Post. An exhibition explains Tudor coastal defences and there is a wonderfully entertaining collection of 2nd World War cartoons. The excellent guide book covers Pendennis and St. Mawes castles and the battery on St. Anthony Head. There is ample car parking and the tearoom now opens all year.
Henry VIII's castle & C19 rapid-firing gun
More in Castles
Pengersick Castle
It isn't really a castle, rather the remnant of a Tudor fortified manor house. The Pengersick family, who took the name from the lands they acquired here, have long gone, as has much of the house and the lands. The present owners do open Pengersick Castle to the public two days a week in July and by appointment. The most likely visitors are ghost hunters - there are ghost open nights too - as Pengersick has a reputation as one of the most haunted houses in Britain. The more than 20 ghosts that haunt Pengersick are said to include a 14th century monk; a 13 year old girl who danced to her death off the battlements; a small boy who tugs at ladies dresses; a woman who walks through a wall; a woman who was stabbed to death in the castle; another beaten to death in the haunted bedroom; a man murdered in 1546; a ghostly cat and dog; and several of the previous owners. If you do think of visiting and want a good bed and breakfast, if it's still operating, do try Pengersick Farm (next door) where Celia Wilson and her husband invited me to look around their garden. I guess they are blessed by being in the warmer, sheltered south but I could not believe what colour and variety they had created in just three years. To arrange a visit call 01736762579
Restormel Castle
If you didn't already know the location of Restormel, you would be unlikely to spot it unless playing golf on the course across the valley. It is not just its invisibility that is unusual, either. First impressions are of a fortress, perched as it is on a knoll high above the Fowey River; indeed its name means 'the spur on the bare hill'. Second impressions tell another story. The castle is one of Cornwall's oldest, built originally by the Normans to defend a crossing of the River Fowey. But what you see today is part of a castle begun in the late 13th century by Edmund Earl of Cornwall, nephew of King Henry III, and completed in the 1330s for the Black Prince, the first Duke of Cornwall. Less castle than palace, it served as a base to oversee the profitable stannary (tin industry) town of Lostwithiel in the valley to the south. Now there remains just the shell keep on its moated mound; here were the royal apartments. Long gone is the outer bailey where the permanent staff of the castle lived. It seems the bailey was abandoned by around 1500, the keep left to fall into disrepair after the English Civil Wars. The keep is substantial but roofless. A rampart walk has been made safe and should be walked. Story boards appear here and there and the guide book is most informative. Ample car parking, small shop but no food though plenty of choice in Lostwithiel.
St. Mawes Castle
After Henry VIII broke with the Church of Rome in the 1530s and established his own Church of England, he found himself threatened by the Catholic powers in Europe. Henry's reaction was to strengthen his coastal defences. Predictably he strengthened the Tower of London and Dover Castle with great artillery bastions and built new forts protecting harbours at Deal and Walmer in Kent, Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight and Southsea by Portsmouth. All these were to protect London but he was also concerned about his first line of defence, the western harbours. In Cornwall his main concerns were Fowey, which had been providing fighting ships since the time of King Edward I, and Falmouth, Europe's largest deep-water harbour. At Fowey Henry linked two forts with a protective chain across the estuary. At Falmouth, where the estuary is more than a mile wide and chains would have been impossible, he built forts on Pendennis Head and on high ground at St. Mawes; their combined artillery fire-power provided full protection. At first glance St. Mawes Castle appears tiny, just a round tower and encircling wall. It is only when you get close that you spot the size and the clover leaf of artillery bastions. It speaks volumes for the expertise of Henry's engineers that St. Mawes and Pendennis were still capable of being garrisoned in both world wars. If visiting St. Mawes and Pendennis, why not use the Falmouth-St. Mawes ferry.