Sandsfoot Castle

One mile from Weymouth is a picturesque ruin, standing on the edge of the rocks, a large part of the structure having been destroyed by the waves. It was one of the many fortresses built by Henry VIII., about 1539, when the fear of foreign invasion was imminent. Leland calls it “a right goodlye and warlyke castle, having one open barbicane”, but it is without architectural beauty. Its walls contain fragments of Norman and Early English work, due to the old abbey of Bindon, out of which it was built. The drawing of 1769 shows a ruined parallelogram of wall, in two storeys, with many windows, faced with ashlar, which is now all carried away. At the N. end was a tower, bearing the arms of England, and here were the governor’s quarters, with vaulted floors; the S. front, which is gone, was semi-circular, and is said to have been the gunroom. The whole stood on a rectangular platform, with redoubts at the corners on the S. side, this forming a gun platform for the battery; but nothing remains on this side. On the E. were the remains of a small defensible gatehouse, and a ditch surrounded the three landward sides. The walls are thick and lofty, and the structure must have been a fine one. A governor or custodian was usually appointed for life. (Castles Of England, Sir James D. Mackenzie, 1896)