England #14 – Launceston Castle, Cornwall

SO, one entry back, we toured the Bodmin Jail, and then we set out over the Bodmin Moor for Launceston Castle, Okehampton Castle, and a drive back across Dartmoor. Yes, it WAS a long last day in Cornwall! But we certainly made the most of it, especially for us, and spent very little time wandering around lost, for once.

This entry is very very picture-intensive. Remember the days of dialup when it would take 15 minutes to load this many pictures?? Yeah, so do I. And not with fondness.

There was a lot of work being done on the A-30 leaving Bodmin, and we always got caught in traffic jams, although usually not for long. They are four-laning it across the Bodmin Moor, kind of sadly. Probably not so sad for people trying to fight the tourists to cross the moor, but I was really happy to see the main roads are still two-lane across Dartmoor.

I did enjoy the traffic signs as we sat there. There was also a cow-crossing sign I cut the top off of, unfortunately. And speed camera signs everywhere. Along with that gorgeous gorse.

It’s about an hour from Bodmin to Launceston, and we had no problems until we actually got to the town, then couldn’t find the castle. I think I expected it to be towering overhead, and in reality it’s kind of off the main drag a bit. Once we finally saw the signs, we were okay.

Even the parking garage in Launceston has a pretty view! Launceston looks like a really nice little town – as usual, I was sorry we didn’t have more time to explore.

The South Gatehouse.

Launceston Castle sits up on a natural hill, and was built soon after the Norman Conquest. It’s basically a 13th century round tower inside an older circular wall. The castle was the administrative center of Cornwall when it was built. Royalists took it over during the English Civil War, and it fell into disrepair in the mid 1600’s. Later on, it became the Cornwall jail but apparently conditions were even worse than Bodmin Jail, and by the middle 1800s the prisoners were moved over to the Bodmin Jail. During WW2 American Army soldiers stayed there. And now it’s an English Heritage site, so we got in free with our pass!

Bluebells were blooming!

It was a pretty steep climb all the way up to the top, and you could go to the very top. So of course we did. It was also alarmingly windy up there, which is not obvious from the nice calm pictures.

The landing you can see there on what used to be the second floor was once the luxurious lodgings, back when it was used as a castle.

The views were just stunning.

You can see from the curve of the town where a medieval town wall was.

It was a fascinating ruin, and after we got done there we headed on towards Ruin # 2 – Okehampeton Castle.