Architecture
Located on high land overlooking the River Fowey, Restormel Castle is an unusual, perfectly circular shell keep with an internal bailey, built of shale. It contains a limited number of stone domestic buildings, clustered around the inside of the wall to form a defensive bailey; the buildings are curved to fit into the shell keep, in an extreme example of the 13th century trend. These included a kitchen, hall, solar, guest chambers and an ante-chapel. Water from a natural spring was piped under pressure into the castle buildings. A square gate tower, largely ruined, guards the entrance to the inner castle, and may have been the first part of the original castle to have been partially constructed in stone. On the opposite side, a square mural tower contains the castle chapel. A former external bailey wall has since been destroyed, leaving no trace. There are also historical references to a dungeon, also now vanished.
The castle appears to stand upon a motte; this is partially correct, as the massive walls were, unusually for the period, sunk deep into the original motte; the effect is heightened by a surrounding ringwork, subsequently filled in on the inner side so as to appear to heap against the castle wall. This may have occurred in the castle's later history to provide a garden walk around the ruin.
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