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Henry VIII built an artillery fort there between 1540 and 1542
Pendennis Castle is an artillery fort built by Henry VIII near Falmouth, Cornwall, between 1540 and 1542. It was part of the King's Device programme to guard against invasion from France and the Holy Roman Empire.
Two castles
Two castles faced each other across Carrick Roads
Carrick Roads, at the mouth of the River Fal, was an important anchorage. Plans were made for five castles, but only two were built: Pendennis and St Mawes Castle, on each side of the water, able to provide overlapping fire.
Ramparts
A Spanish threat added a ring of ramparts and bastions
In 1597 a Spanish fleet with 20,000 men set out and was kept from landing only by bad weather. Between 1597 and 1600 the engineer Paul Ivey built an Italian-styled ring of earthworks and bastions around the older castle.
1646
Pendennis was the penultimate Royalist fortification to hold out
In 1646 the Royalist castle held out against Parliament under Sir John Arundell, blockaded by sea and bombarded from the land. Arundell agreed to an honourable surrender on 15 August, and about 900 men left the fort two days later.
“...one of the finest examples of a post-medieval defensive promontory fort in the country”
Historic England
Last guns
It saw action against German aircraft in the Second World War
The castle was rearmed during the Second World War and saw action against the German Luftwaffe aircraft. In 1956, by then obsolete, it was decommissioned and passed to the Ministry of Works, which opened the site to visitors.
Day 5, midday
It comes after National Maritime Museum Cornwall. Then Eden Project.
More stories from this trip idea
The words are a retelling of the Wikipedia article Pendennis Castle, and are shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. They are checked against those articles, and a fact that is not in them is left out.