Plympton Castle, built by Richard de Redvers, first Earl of Devon, and the scene of fighting in the reigns of Stephen, John, and Charles I, is now quite ruinous. Tiverton Castle, ascribed to the same founder, but reconstructed in the fourteenth century and dismantled after the Civil War, has been partly adapted as a modern house. It sustained a brief siege, of only a few hours' duration, by Fairfax in 1645. A cannon-shot cut the chain of the drawbridge, the bridge fell, and the besiegers, pouring in, were quickly masters of the fortress. The chief ancient features are the great gate, a tower, and the remains of the banqueting hall and the chapel. The scanty remains of Hemyock Castle, two miles east of Culmstock, and not far from the border of Somerset, at first garrisoned for the Parliament, then taken by the Royalists, and finally dismantled by Cromwell, consist of little more than the gateway and its covering-towers, which are of flint. Totnes Castle, whose ivy-clad walls of red sandstone look down upon the river Dart, was founded by Judhael, soon after the Conquest, but it has been a ruin since the time of Henry VIII. Of Dartmouth Castle, a very picturesque ruin at the end of a promontory guarding the harbour, the chief remains are a square tower of the time of Edward IV, and a round tower of the reign of Henry VII. The place may still be seen where a chain was drawn across the river to Gomerock Castle, a small fort on the opposite shore, to keep hostile ships from sailing up the Dart. Kingswear Castle, a small thirteenth century building on the same river, the scene of some fighting during the Civil War, has been restored, and is now a private residence. Salcombe or Clifton Castle, on the Kingsbridge estuary, one of Henry VIII's coast defences against the long-expected attack of the Spanish Armada, was the last place on the Devonshire mainland to hold out for Charles I. The square Morisco fortress on Lundy, whose plain walls now shelter cottages that have been built inside it, is twelfth century work. The scanty ruins of Colcombe Castle near Colyton, supposed to have been destroyed by the Parliamentarians, and the square tower of Gidleigh, not far from Chagford, date, it is believed, from the century following; and the castle of Ilton, two miles north-west of Salcombe, on the Kingsbridge estuary, now used as a farm, was built in the fourteenth century. Of Torrington Castle a few fragments only are left. The castles of Exmouth and Bampton have entirely disappeared; and of Barnstaple Castle, built, it is said, by Athelstan, but ruinous as far back as the reign of Henry VIII, nothing but the site remains.