Haldon Belvedere (Lawrence Castle)

En un regard

Le château en bref

On the ridge of the Haldon Hills, at an altitude of about 244 metres south-west of Exeter, stands a curious white tower with three corners flanked by turrets: the Haldon Belvedere, also known as Lawrence Castle. It is not a fortress but a memorial folly, built in 1788 by Sir Robert Palk, former Governor of Madras, in memory of his friend and benefactor General Stringer Lawrence, a leading figure of the British army in India. The tower, triangular in plan and Gothic in style, rises over three storeys to a height of some twenty metres. On the ground floor stands a Coade stone statue of Lawrence as a Roman general; upstairs, a small ballroom retains a mahogany floor brought from India and fine fireplaces, one of which bears the Palk arms. From the top, the view takes in the Exe estuary, Dartmoor and, on clear days, Exmoor. After the collapse of the Palk fortune and the demolition of Haldon House in 1925, the tower fell into decline. Rescued by the Devon Historic Buildings Trust, it reopened in 1996, then underwent an exterior restoration in 2016. Today it hosts weddings and receptions and has a holiday apartment.