Totnes Castle

Great little castle that was never upgraded — apart from replacing the main original timber buildings with stone.
It would have been very impressive before the town grew and covered the slope of the hill it sits on. Nowadays the real delight is seeing how it works, and how all castles were originally designed to work.

One of the first three stone castles built in Devon and set in a commanding position above the town. It’s worth the climb up the steps to the top to see the view on a fine day (as I did on one occasion in the middle of summer). There’s a small entrance fee although school, and other, educational groups can get in for free.

First, the good news Totnes, and its castle, is one of the most quirkily English historical forms: the Motte and Bailey Castle built in Norman times to defend the Northernmost fording point of the River Dart. The old Bailey walls still stand, but regrettably that is where its historic interest tends to end. All within the Bailey has been robbed out to provide stone for construction in the town. The teardrop Motte area within the original walls is clearly visible from the top of the Bailey walls, but much of the town is a mad clutter of Tudor, Georgian and Victorian building, with outer ersatz imitations as the town spread. The original broad-​shouldered Town Bridge still remains, but is now mostly bypassed by a recent road bridge. Totnes’ most recent fame (or should that be infamy?) is that it seems to have become the English Epicentre for another historical figure: the Dead Hippy. If you wish to buy Carnaby Street Cast-​Offs, Crystals, Incense or Occult Books, then Totnes is most certainly for you. For the rest of us, however, it is merely a traffic bottleneck between the East Side of the River Dart (Torquay and Paignton) and the West (Dartmouth and Plymouth. Shame, really