Dartmouth Castle is an artillery fort in Devon, England, built to protect Dartmouth harbor. Its earliest parts date from the 1380s, when the mayor John Hawley obtained royal permission to fund a "fortalice by the sea." This enclosure castle was built around the chapel of Saint Petroc.
Henry VII later paid for a new artillery tower, completed in 1495, which is considered the oldest known purpose-built coast artillery fort in Britain. More batteries followed in the 1540s, and the Grand Battery in 1748.
The castle saw action in the English Civil War and was rebuilt in 1859 as the Dartmouth Point Battery. It was used in the Second World War and retired in 1955. English Heritage now manages it, and it is open to visitors.
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