Trematon Castle

Trematon Castle stands on a rocky hill one and a half miles south-east of Saltash in Cornwall. It overlooks the Lynher River and occupies the site of an earlier Roman fort. The castle is a motte-and-bailey structure built soon after the Norman Conquest, probably by Robert, Count of Mortain. Its most striking feature is a 12th-century stone shell keep with walls 10 feet thick and 30 feet high. A rectangular gatehouse added in 1270 still has two floors and a portcullis. The keep is oval and its internal diameter is about 21 metres. Historians recognise Trematon as one of the principal residences of the earls of Cornwall alongside Launceston, Restormel and Liddle. The military historian Sir Charles Oman described its position as high aloft on one of the chaotic hill-tops behind Saltash. The castle’s long history includes a visit by Sir Francis Drake, who anchored behind St Nicholas Island before storing his plundered treasures there. Queen Elizabeth II visited in 1962 before sailing from Fowey on the royal yacht Britannia. Inside the courtyard stands a Georgian house built around 1808 with four reception rooms and six main bedrooms plus servants’ quarters. Part of the original castle wall was removed to give the house a view across the countryside. The castle has been home to notable figures including Lord Caradon and his son Paul Foot. Recent tenants have transformed the grounds into a garden and the interiors into a pop-up hotel. Visitors find standing walls that clearly show the original form of the keep and gatehouse, and sweeping views over the surrounding hills.