Facilities
Picnics welcome.
Access for visitors in wheelchairs to outer bailey.


The castle at Launceston dominates the surrounding landscape - perched on top of a large, natural mound. The Castle was the ultimate status symbol of Middle Age wealth and power. Originally known as Dunheved. It was an impressive and strategically important building that controlled the river crossing in and out of Cornwall. The castle at Dunheved was first built as an earthwork castle, after the Norman conquest. Located high on a grassy mound overlooking nearby settlement of St Stephens. The location meant that it became the administrative headquarters for the great Earls of Cornwall - where they could control the vast estates that they owned throughout the area. The castle remained with little development, apart from an inner keep added in the 12th century. During the 13th century, Richard, Earl of Cornwall, a younger brother of Henry III began a transformation of the castle, rebuilding the edifice in stone.