England · 15th century
Kingswear Castle ranks #4,378 of 9,040 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #285 of the 360 mapped in England. Founded 1491, it is older than 44% of the atlas's dated landmarks, one of 556 atlas entries founded in the 15th century. 4 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. See how England compares in the castle statistics.
Kingswear Castle is an artillery fort, built to protect Dartmouth harbour in Devon, England. It was constructed between 1491 and 1502 in response to the threat of French attack and was one of the first purpose-built artillery forts in Britain. By the end of the 16th century, however, improvements in the range of artillery weapons had reduced the utility of the castle. It took part in the English Civil War and continued to be armed until the early 18th century, but fell into ruin. Restored as a summer house in 1855, in the 21st century it is managed by the Landmark Trust as a holiday let.
Text adapted from “Kingswear Castle” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
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