England · Ruin
Colcombe Castle
Colcombe Castle was a medieval mansion/fortified house near Colyton in East Devon that served as a seat of the Courtenay earls of Devon. By the 18th–19th centuries it had largely fallen into ruin and the site is now occupied by a farmhouse and farm buildings called Colcombe Abbey Farm; only fragments of the earlier fabric survive.
Its prime
1530
Today
Ruin
As it stood in 1530
The shape it held in its prime.
Sited on a shallow terrace overlooking the valley and the town of Colyton, Colcombe in its prime was a broad, low-rising stone mansion rather than a tall keep: long ranges of stone-built halls and service blocks with multiple gabled roofs and prominent Tudor chimneys. Facades included mullioned stone windows and a large kitchen block with an enormous open fireplace; a shallow leat or moat crossed by a stone bridge lay in front, and a parapet wall on the bridge carried a Tudor-shaped arched window frame with heraldic escutcheons.
Its story
The story of Colcombe Castle.
Colcombe Castle, half a mile north of Colyton in East Devon, was a seat of the Courtenay family, Earls of Devon, whose principal seat lay at Tiverton Castle some 22 miles to the north-west. Hoskins states it was first built in the reign of Edward I by Hugh de Courtenay, and Thomas de Courtenay, 5th Earl of Devon, used it as his seat while his widowed mother occupied Tiverton as her dower house.
Its position near Shute, seat of William Bonville, 1st Baron Bonville — the arch-enemy of the 5th Earl — fed serious territorial battles between the two families, culminating in the Battle of Clyst Heath in 1455. Henry Courtenay, 1st Marquess of Exeter, rebuilt the house on a magnificent scale, but after his attainder and execution it became forfeit to the crown; Queen Mary restored it to his son Edward Courtenay, the last earl of the family, after whose death the heirs general sold it.
The manor was then divided into moieties, one possessed by Lord Petre, the other acquired by Sir John Pole and Sir John Drake. Pevsner doubted the building was ever truly fortified, and it was already ruinous in the historian Polwhele's own time; the site is now occupied by Colcombe Abbey Farm, where a single converted building with a mullioned stone window shows signs of the ancient construction.
Step inside
8 places to explore in 1530.
The record describes 8 distinct spots at Colcombe Castle — including 2 interiors: great kitchen with massive open fireplace, private chamber above the kitchen. Create your own photoreal reconstruction and walk through every one — more scenes means more photos, more angles and more rooms of the immersive experience.
Create History
Recreate Colcombe Castle with AI to explore it.
The artist rebuilds it as it stood in 1530 — a photoreal walk that belongs to you alone. Pay with coins, no subscription needed.
Recreate Castle to Explore →Whose castle
Clans who held Colcombe Castle.
The families that held Colcombe Castle for a decade or more across its history — follow a name to its clan.
Courtenay
Seat of the Courtenay Earls of Devon from the reign of Edward I; rebuilt by Henry Courtenay, Marquess of Exeter, and forfeited to the crown on his attainder and execution.
