Trematon Castle
OS Grid Ref:-SX4158
Trematon Castle is situated two miles southwest of the town of Saltash and occupying an emminence rising steeply from the River Lynher, it overlooks Plymouth Sound.
The castle is of similar design to Restormel Castle with a twelfth century shell-keep. It was constructed by on the ruins of an earlier Roman fort which occupied the site and was probably founded by Robert, Count of Mortain and Earl of Cornwall, half-brother of William the Conqueror. The castle is mentioned as being in his ownership in the Domesday Book of 1086.
An oval shell keep surmounts the motte and a plain curtain wall surrounds the bailey. The internal diameter measures approximately 21 metres. The well preserved rectangular gatehouse, probably added by Reginald De Valle Torta, dates from around 1270 and has two floors and a portcullis.
From the time of the Norman Conquest until 1270, the influential Valtetort family owned the rights for the ferry from Saltash Passage on the Plymouth side of the River Tamar to Saltash. At the time when when Reginald's descendant, Roger de Valletort, sold the castle to Richard, Earl of Cornwall, the second son of King John, the rent, which ammounted to nearly seven pounds, was paid to the Earl's bailiff. Since 1337 it has been in the ownership of the Dukes of Cornwall, a title traditionally held by the eldest son of the sovereign.
When the Elizabethan seafarer Sir Francis Drake returned from his circumnavigation voyage in 1580, the gold, silver and precious stones he had acquired from Spanish galleons were stored at the castle, before being moved to the Tower of London.
The castle saw action during the Civil War and in the course of Kilter's Insurrection which broke out in Cornwall in 1594. The castle was besieged and its attackers managed to lure out and capture its defender, Sir Richard Grenville.
The castle is now owned by Prince Charles, as Duke of Cornwall and is currently closed to the public.