

i^i li" Castle 

 -Jr^l^ Head 



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A HISTORY OF DEVONSHIRE 



Brixham. — Lysons^ speaks of a promontory fort on Berry Head, projecting into Torbay, 

 where the vallum 1 8 ft. in height stretched across the whole width of the promontory in a direct 

 line. Here British pottery and Roman coins were found ; but all is now destroyed, a fate which has 



also overtaken another 

 small entrenchment near 

 Shorestone Point. 



Chivelstone (O.S. 

 cxxxix, i). — Slight re- 

 mains of entrenchments 

 lie inland from Prawl 

 Point, 



Dartmouth, St. 

 Petrox (O.S. cxxviii, 

 13). — Dartmouth Castle. 

 The successive engage- 

 ments with the French 

 in 1377 and 1404 ; the 

 Wars of the Roses, when 

 Dartmouth was held by 

 the Lancastrians ; and in the Great Rebellion, when it was besieged for a month in 1643, '^^^ 

 retaken in 1646, caused such alterations to be made in the ancient defences that no earthworks 

 of any definite period remain. 



Above the cliff of Castle Point the remains of an entrenchment run southwards, following the 

 outline of the cliff. 



Upon Castle Head are a series of defences which have been more complete than at present 

 appears. The remains consist of an agger 14 ft. in height, rising to a greater elevation at the 

 eastern extremity, and a ditch 3 ft. deep extends across a full half of the neck of the headland. At 

 the west of this vallum was the entrance ; but the defences on the other side of the gateway are 

 almost obliterated. 



Within the entrance another agger, 100 ft. long, extends at an obtuse angle to the first, and 

 beyond it a rampart is on the margin of the height. 



At the south-west extremity a circular guard-room or habitation is at the head of a narrow 

 path which descends to the river bank. 



SCALE OP FEET 

 100 iOQ 



300 



The Castle, Dunterton. 



IV,'.!', I 



Dunterton. — ' The Castle,' 

 situated on Castle Head, is a strong 

 frontier fort overlooking the Cornish 

 territory. The position is a bold 

 headland rising high from the sur- 

 rounding country, and precipitately 

 descending to the River Tamar, 

 which makes a convex curve at its 

 base ; it then commands two reaches 

 of the river, and would have been a 

 powerful deterrent to the raids of the 

 Carnabii of the opposite bank. 



Hartland (O.S. xxvi, 8). — 

 Embury Beacon. On a projecting 

 cliff on the west coast, between 

 Nabor Point on the north and Knap 

 on the south, is a stronghold of 

 double defences ; the inner work — 

 greatly reduced by the fall of the 

 cliff — is of arc form, with a rampart 

 5 ft. high, and 12 ft. wide, with an 

 escarpment 10 ft. high descending 

 to a ditch 1 2 ft. wide. A circular 

 mound 3 ft. in height with a table 

 top has been called a tumulus, but 

 unless future excavations prove otherwise, it may be assumed to be a defence to an entrance at this 

 point. Beyond a court varying from 200 to 300 ft. in width is an outer vallum and fosse crossing 

 the point in a north-easterly direction. The vallum 3 ft. high and 1 5 ft. wide has an escarpment 



' Lysons, Mag. Brit, vi, 351. 

 576 



Embury Beacon, Hartland. 



