History of Plympton Castle in Devon
Edited by David Nash Ford

P L Y M P T O N
C A S T L E
Centre of a Great Feudal "Honour"

The "Honour" of Plympton was the most important of all the great feudal holdings of Devon and the one most closely associated with the Redvers Earls, who had it from their ancestor, Baldwin de Brionne, before the Earldom was created. It was an immense unit - 89 knights' fees or 185 manors extending all over the south-west corner of Devon, of which Plympton was then the chief town, Plymouth being, as yet, no more than a fishing village.

Plympton Castle was early important and long inhabited but, unfortunately, it has disappeared. Nothing remains but its mound. More might have been expected to survive, since Leland found it "A fair large castle with a donjon. The walls yet stand, but the lodgings within be decayed." But walls and don-jon are now gone and the visitor will find little to repay a visit. The motte still stands 70 ft high and 200 ft in circumference, while there are fragments of the circular stone keep on top, remaining some 18ft high in places.