246 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
PLYMPTON CASTLE. 
BY MR. J. BROOKING ROWE, F.S.Ant., F.L.S., ETC. 
(Read November 15th, 1877.) 
TuE site of this Castle— perhaps selected by the Kelt, who ac- 
cording to his need and his ability made it his strong place, used 
by the Roman, added to and improved by the English, and then 
seized by the Norman, who built his keep upon the even then 
antient mound, extending the fortifications and forming his dwelling- 
place within the lines of his predecessors’ works—is probably 
well known to all present. 
-A high hill on the south, gently sloping ground on the north, 
the valley nearly at its termination on the east, and on the west 
the open flat land, formerly, as we shall see, much more marshy 
than at present ; such was the position chosen as a dwelling-place 
and a stronghold by our ancestors in days long past. It would 
be of course impossible to say with any certainty what time 
has elapsed since the valley in which the town of Plympton is 
situated was first inhabited by the human race, but there can be no 
question that man has long had his home there, and that from 
very remote ages it has been the scene of busy life, intermingled 
with periods of tumult and bloodshed. 
Except in one particular the main features of the locality have 
changed but little, but that particular is an important one. While 
now the sea is two miles from Plympton, in early times it flowed 
nearly up to it, and at high tide, even in medieval times, it would 
seem that the waters of the sea washed the walls of the Castle. 
Tracing the course of the estuary of the Lara from Cattewater, we 
shall find that the sea, now confined within narrower limits by art, 
and restricted in its flow by natural changes, ran up the valley to 
near about the place now forming the western side of the graveyard 
of Plympton St. Mary Church. Thence it branched off, tending 
north-east and south-east, the former stream flowing over the flat, 
