Sham Castle Ruin and Surrounding Boundary Retaining Wall Approximately 260 Metres North of Castle Hill House is a Grade II listed building in the North Devon local planning authority area, England. First listed on 20 February 1967. Castle ruin.

Sham Castle Ruin and Surrounding Boundary Retaining Wall Approximately 260 Metres North of Castle Hill House

WRENN ID
low-corbel-bittern
Grade
II
Local Planning Authority
North Devon
Constituency
North Devon MP: Ian Roome (LD)
Country
England
Date first listed
20 February 1967
Type
Castle ruin
OS grid reference
SS 672 287
Coordinates
51.0426, -3.89541
Source
Historic England listing

Also on this page: flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

Sham Castle is a gothic ruin built in the mid-18th century as an eyecatcher in the landscape design for Castle Hill House. The structure is made of stone rubble with some brickwork at the parapet. It features a square tower with taller projecting corner turrets and lower flank walls that end in mock turrets, creating a symmetrical appearance. There are pointed arched doorways on each side of the tower, with the front doorway flanked by tall, narrow pointed arched window openings that are mostly infilled. Above, there are four bullseye windows. Each flank wall has two rectangular window openings, and the mock turrets at either end have blind quatrefoil loops above smaller rectangular openings. The raised mound on which the castle sits is supported by a stone rubble retaining wall with buttresses at intervals, and there is a sham pointed arched gateway on the north side.

Local climate

Sham Castle Ruin and Surrounding Boundary Retaining Wall Approximately 260 Metres North of Castle Hill House receives an average of 960 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 74% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 81% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 18 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 82% of listed buildings. Of these, 8 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

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