| Summary: | Gidleigh Castle. Fortified manor house. Keep cellar 6.6m long, 3.9m wide; solar 6.8m long, 4.1m wide; walls 1.9m thick. Only tiny keep remains. Late 13th-14th century. Stone from same quarry as used at Okehampton - sandy magnesium limestone. Same mason probably built both. Keep consists of cellar and solar. Low pitch roof, probably lead covered. Cellar has pointed vault supported by three arched ribs. One small window in N end of E wall. Entrance door on S. Narrow stair way in thickness of the wall leads to the solar, lit by narrow slit window in S wall and wider window in W wall opposite solar door. Solar door is square-headed, with chamfered lintel and jambs. Another entrance to solar by a stone newel staircase in a turret on E side, which formerly extended to the roof. Lit by slit windows, one cruciform. Solar has fire- place with arched head and corbels, possibly for a hood. Windows in E and S walls. N wall abutted on to other apartments, slight traces remain. It contains a doorway, 610mm wide, jambs and lintel chamfered. Doors have sockets in the stonework for bolts and recesses and sockets for wooden bars. Masonry of round waterworn stone and small boulders. Foundations undercut by modern construction. Turret stairway ruined, walls cracked, entrance arch has fallen, stair newel collapsed, east wall partly fallen, one of two buttresses remain. |
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