Bearscove Castle is a Grade I listed building in the South Hams local planning authority area, England. Castle.
Bearscove Castle
- WRENN ID
- north-sill-sedge
- Grade
- I
- Local Planning Authority
- South Hams
- Constituency
- South Devon MP: Caroline Voaden (LD)
- Country
- England
- Type
- Castle
- Address
- Bearscove Castle, Bayards Cove, Dartmouth
- OS grid reference
- SX 878 509
- Coordinates
- 50.34788, -3.57743
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
Bearscove Castle is a small artillery castle built to protect the town quay, likely constructed between 1509 and 1510, and certainly in existence by 1537. It is made of local limestone rubble.
The castle features a platform cut into the rock, enclosed by a thick, curving wall that projects into the estuary. The exterior includes a thick rubble wall with a regular series of putlog holes. There is a plain doorway on the northern side leading onto the quay, although historical records suggest the quay did not extend this far until 1839. The doorway has an irregular two-centred arch head beneath a hoodmould. There are eleven splayed gunports designed for guns mounted on flat beds, which are externally rebated for shutters. Although the parapet has mostly collapsed, the lower courses remain, supported by a row of small corbels.
Inside, the castle is unroofed and features the remains of stone steps leading to the wallwalk. There are sockets for timbers in the cliff at the rear, indicating that the castle was used for storage during peacetime.
Bearscove Castle is located at the end of a picturesque row of listed buildings on the old town quay.
Local climate
Bearscove Castle receives an average of 940 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 71% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 95% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 2 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 99% of listed buildings. Of these, 1 follows at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.2°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.
More on this building
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- No EPC on record for this property
- No sale records on file
- No related consent applications matched
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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