Stowey Castle

En un regard

Le château en bref

Set on a rocky spur that extends the Quantock Hills eastwards, Stowey Castle overlooks the village of Nether Stowey, where locals simply call it “The Mount”. The site no longer retains any spectacular standing remains, but it offers one of the most legible plans of a Norman motte castle in Somerset: an oval mound about eight metres high, encircled by a ditch and a counterscarp, flanked by two baileys. On top of the motte, the foundations of a rectangular rubble keep, divided by cross walls, break the surface, together with the probable remains of a small entrance building to the south-east. This masonry, uncovered in the 19th century by Peregrine Acland, is protected at Grade I, while the earthworks as a whole, the site of St Michael's chapel and a nearby medieval pottery kiln form a Scheduled Monument. Seat of a small feudal honour held successively by the Chandos, the Columbers and then the Audleys, the castle was abandoned before the end of the Middle Ages; its stones were later used for the houses of the village and for the manor of Stowey Court. From the outer rampart the view opens over the village, the valley and the Bristol Channel, making this short climb a popular stop for walkers in the Quantocks.