Okehampton Castle grew down a naturally defended ridge

Okehampton's early castle placed a square tower of granite and rubble on a naturally fortified ridge. Fourteenth-century expansion added buildings around an elongated bailey down the slope. Kitchens, lodgings, a hall, guard rooms, and a chapel occupied this extended enclosure. A gatehouse led to a long barbican causeway with its own outer two-storey gate block. Although abandoned in the first half of the sixteenth century, the site retained extensive ruins in its riverside setting.