Kingswear Castle

Kingswear Castle is a blockhouse built between 1491 and 1502 for the defense of Dartmouth Harbour, later converted into a summer residence. It is located on the east side of the harbour entrance, opposite Dartmouth Castle on the west side of the estuary. The structure is made of slate rubble with red sandstone dressings and has a square plan with slightly battered walls. It features a corbelled embattled parapet that steps up to a higher level on the north side. The north side includes a chamfered two-centred arch doorway and corbelled machicolations above, along with an octagonal stair turret on the northwest corner, which has battlements and small four-centred arch windows at the top, as well as loops below. The other sides have four-centred head openings and loops at a high level, with square openings below that have relieving arches.

There is a low circular detached tower to the northwest, which has a corbelled embattled parapet, openings with cambered arches, and a round stair turret on the southeast side, also featuring a corbelled parapet with battlements. The building has 20th-century concrete additions that link it to the main structure. A fort existed on the Dartmouth side of the harbour mouth as early as 1388, but the current Dartmouth Castle was begun in 1481, with most of the remaining work dating from 1488 to 1494. By the mid-17th century, the long-range guns installed at Dartmouth Castle rendered Kingswear Castle obsolete, leading to its abandonment. However, it was held by Sir Henry Cary for the King during the Civil War and was captured in 1646 by Sir Thomas Fairfax. Further defenses for Kingswear were constructed by the Royalists in the form of a redoubt immediately above the town. In 1855, Kingswear Castle was converted into a summer residence for Major Charles Seale-Hayne by architect T. Lidston, and it continues to be used for this purpose.