King Charles’s Castle was built during the reign of King Edward VI (the boy king; 1547 – 53), at the same time as The Blockhouse (described in my previous post). It stands proud guard over the sound between Tresco and Bryher (see my post about the sound in The Isles of Scilly). Whereas the Blockhouse stands on the east side of Tresco protecting the Old Grimsby harbour, King Charles’s Castle is on the west side, protecting New Grimsby harbour and the anchorage.
So, why is it called King Charles’s Castle, when it was built a century before we had any King Charles ruling England? As I told in my previous posts, the Isles of Scilly were occupied by the Royalists during the Civil War and wasn’t taken by the parliamentarians until 1651. And the castle was one of the strongholds defending the royalist cause during the Reign of King Charles I and was named after the king.
The fort was intended to protect the narrow strait into the Isles of Scilly, but it turned out that it was badly sited to fire on ships in the channel below. The fort was high up and the guns would have to point down at too steep an angle to hit ships in the strait below. The canon balls would just have rolled out of the cannon before they could fire.
So the fort was easily taken by Admiral Blake (who also took the Blockhouse, described in my previous post). He simply bypassed it and landed on the east side of the island (after having taken the Blockhouse). The Parliamentarians instead built Cromwell Castle (that I have described and photographed in my previous blog), partially with stone blocks used from King Charles’s Castle.
