Qualla: Star Castle, Isles of Scilly

Star Castle, Isles of Scilly: Introduction

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Richard Croft, CC BY-SA 2.0. The walls have eight points, like a child's drawing of a star. From the air the shape is unmistakable: a stone star plonked down on the green headland called the Hugh on the western side of St Mary's, with the Atlantic on three sides and Hugh Town tucked into the sandy isthmus behind it. Star Castle was finished in 1593, five years after the Spanish Armada was beaten and English commanders still expected Philip II to send another fleet. He never did. The castle remained, the threat receded, the eight-pointed plan went out of fashion - and today the building is a hotel, where guests sleep inside walls built to watch for invasion ships that never came.

Image: Richard Croft | CC BY-SA 2.0

Star Castle, Isles of Scilly: A Queen's Order

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Daniel Bagshaw, CC BY-SA 2.5. In May 1593, five years after the Armada had scattered around Scotland, Queen Elizabeth I gave the order: build a fort on the Scilly Isles, and add two sconces - small lookout works - to watch for any Spanish sail. The Surveyor of the Royal Works, the mapmaker Robert Adams, drew ...

Image: Daniel Bagshaw | CC BY-SA 2.5

Star Castle, Isles of Scilly: The Eight-Pointed Star

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ruth Riddle, CC BY-SA 2.0. Star forts were a sixteenth-century answer to a sixteenth-century problem. Round towers gave cannonballs flat surfaces to bounce off, but they also created blind spots at the base of the wall where attackers could approach unseen. By breaking the walls into a star with re-entrant...

Image: Ruth Riddle | CC BY-SA 2.0

Star Castle, Isles of Scilly: Abraham Tovey's Garrison

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Springnuts, CC BY 3.0. The castle itself was just the keep. Around it spread the Garrison - an outer wall enclosing the whole Hew Hill outcrop, studded with gun batteries at regular intervals so that every angle of approach could be covered. In 1740, Master Gunner Abraham Tovey rebuilt much of this per...

Image: Springnuts | CC BY 3.0

Star Castle, Isles of Scilly: From Fortress to Hotel

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Des Blenkinsopp, CC BY-SA 2.0. By the twentieth century the castle had long since outlived its military purpose. The Garrison still wrapped the hilltop, the batteries still pointed seaward, but the only ships passing now were the Penzance steamer and the inter-island launches. In 1933 the castle was converted ...

Image: Des Blenkinsopp | CC BY-SA 2.0