Kingswear Castle
Encyclopedia
Kingswear Castle was built between 1491 and 1502 as a coastal artillery
Coastal artillery
Coastal artillery is the branch of armed forces concerned with operating anti-ship artillery or fixed gun batteries in coastal fortifications....
tower for use with heavy cannon. It is located in Devon
Devon
Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
.
Owing to the limited range of cannon at the time, the fort at Kingswear
Kingswear
Kingswear is a village and civil parish in the South Hams area of the English county of Devon. The village is located on the east bank of the tidal River Dart, close to the river's mouth and opposite the small town of Dartmouth...
was designed to work alongside Dartmouth Castle
Dartmouth Castle
Dartmouth Castle is one of a pair of forts, the other being Kingswear Castle, that guard the mouth of the Dart Estuary in Devon, England .A small fortalice was built in 1388 under the direction of John Hawley...
on the opposite bank, so that between them they could provide complete cover of the narrow entrance through the Dart estuary
River Dart
The River Dart is a river in Devon, England which rises high on Dartmoor, and releases to the sea at Dartmouth. Its valley and surrounding area is a place of great natural beauty.-Watercourse:...
into Dartmouth
Dartmouth, Devon
Dartmouth is a town and civil parish in the English county of Devon. It is a tourist destination set on the banks of the estuary of the River Dart, which is a long narrow tidal ria that runs inland as far as Totnes...
Harbour. As gun technology improved and the range of the weapons increased, new gun emplacements were added to Dartmouth Castle, aiming further out towards the estuary mouth. This led to a decline in the defensive role of Kingswear Castle.
Unlike Dartmouth Castle, Kingswear Castle is owned by the Landmark Trust
Landmark Trust
The Landmark Trust is a British building conservation charity, founded in 1965 by Sir John and Lady Smith, that rescues buildings of historic interest or architectural merit and then gives them a new life by making them available for holiday rental...
, and is not generally accessible to the public.