Star Castle Hotel

The Star Castle Hotel is a house located within Star Castle Fort, built in 1593 with later alterations in the late 17th century. Designed by Robert Adams, it is constructed from rendered granite rubble with granite and brick dressings, and has a slurried M-shaped hipped slate roof with lateral, central valley and ridge stacks. The building's distinctive eight-sided plan reflects the shape of the surrounding bastions. It has two storeys with attics, and three bays to each facade, with central two-sided salient projections. The front of the building features two ground-floor 8/8-pane sash windows, and two 2/2-pane sashes, with two first-floor 2/2-pane and 8/8-pane sashes. The original granite door has a moulded architrave with a drip-moulded head. Dormers on the roof have late 19th-century horned 2/2-pane sashes.

The interior consists of two accommodation floors above a basement used for storage. A plan from 1757, recorded by Abraham Tovey, Master Gunner, documented two heated ground-floor chambers with back-to-back stacks and stairs, all of which remain. Features include some two-panelled doors, a late 17th-century wooden dog-leg staircase with a rectangular moulded handrail and continuous newel to the first floor, a late 17th-century moulded granite fireplace in the ground-floor main chamber with polished wooden half columns, and a first-floor room with a white marble fireplace in a baseless Greek Doric order featuring a centrepiece with oak leaves and laurels. Some blocked first-floor angle fireplaces are also present.

Star Castle was originally part of a defensive system built under Francis Godolphin to counter the threat posed by the Spanish after the 1588 Armada and was later used as a prison, notable inmates including Dr Bastwick (1637) and Sir John Ireton (1662). It served as the last Royalist stronghold, with Prince Charles and his suite taking refuge here in 1646 after their retreat from the Battle of Bodmin. The building was converted into a hotel in 1933. Star Castle, along with its outer bastions and walls, constitutes an important and complete example of an Elizabethan fort built to a common Renaissance plan.