Salcombe Castle

Salcombe Castle, also known as Fort Charles, stands as a ruined fortification on a rocky outcrop just off North Sands beach in Salcombe, Devon. It lies within the South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, a landscape recognised for its scenic value. The castle is reached easily on foot when the tide is low, revealing a Grade II listed structure and ancient monument. A semicircular tower, four storeys high, rises seven metres and still shows gun ports near its top. A section of wall links this tower to a rectangular one, six metres tall. Built between 1535 and 1539 as a gun battery, Salcombe Castle originally had seven gun embrasures. It was financed by local subscription under Viscount Courtenay’s direction to protect against French raids. Thomas Treffry of Fowey oversaw its construction on a rocky promontory, requiring a new causeway from Salcombe village. After its completion no further French raids occurred in the area. During the Civil War the castle was twice attacked by Parliamentary ships, including a raid in July 1645 when 200 men arrived from Plymouth. In 1646 Royalist forces under Colonel Sir Edmund Fortescue held the castle for nearly five months against a siege led by Colonel Weldon and Colonel Richard Inglesby. Heavy guns were brought up from Plymouth and positioned on Rickham Common above Sunny Cove. The final surrender came on 7 May when supplies ran low. Though slighted after the war, the castle remained in use as a gun battery until at least 1717, mounting five recovered ship’s guns. Today visitors find the ruined towers, remnants of the causeway and emplacement sites still visible among brambles.