St Catherine's Castle, Fowey, Cornwall England. Castles are Amazing, History, Context, Visiting Tips

This amazing castle was built by Henry VIII nearly 500 years ago and incredibly was brought back to life in World War II to defend against attack.
This is St Catherine’s Castle in Fowey , Cornwall, England.
This video will provide a brief history, context and visiting tips and also a little bit about this area that incredibly has the ruins of 3 castles or this castle and 2 Blockhouses depending on terminology! Please stay to the end for all the details.
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St Catherine’s Castle is located here in Fowey Cornwall, on the River Fowey, opposite Polruan and about 8 miles from St Austell.
We can see it here on this map from Historic England, the castle is a Grade II* listed building, and also a Scheduled Ancient Monument.
On this map we can also see the Fowey Blockhouse also known as the 'Castle remains at harbour mouth' and on the other side of the river Polruan Castle or Blockhouse. These 2 buildings provided a harbour chain defence prior to St Catherine’s being built. I have made a separate video on Polruan Castle, link at the end.
For context let's look at monarchs. The chart I’ve made goes from the present King Charles III, all the way back to William I.
St Catherine’s Castle was built in 1540 as part of King Henry VIII's defence strategy.
Picking another couple of dates on its timeline, it was involved in the English Civil War in the 1640s, during the reign of King Charles I.
It was then re-equipped for the Crimean War in Queen Victoria’s reign and
then was brought back again into use in World War II as a defence battery in the reign of King George VI.
Some Context and History
In 1538 , the Pope encouraged France and the Holy Roman Empire, which was a sort of forerunner of Germany to attack England following Henry VIII breaking with the catholic church so he could get a divorce.
As a result Henry VIII tried to fortify the south coast and St Catherine’s Castle was one of these fortifications, replacing the two earlier fortifications which used a harbour chain closer to the harbour.
St Catherine’s Castle rather than a chain utilised guns for protection and as the centuries progressed and gun technology moved on the Castle had to be modified and adapted to house the new weapons
So why build the castle here? , well in the Middle Ages Fowey and Polruan were important ship building, maintenance and sea trade ports that would be a target for an enemy attack. Also in the event of invasion it was a deep water harbour that would be very useful for an invading force.
So what remains today?
Sources included:
English Heritage
Historic England