Castle Hill, Barnstaple

Castle Hill in the parish of Filleigh in North Devon, is an early Neo-Palladian country house situated 3 miles north-west of South Molton and 8 mi south-east of Barnstaple. It was built in 1730 by Hugh Fortescue, 14th Baron Clinton, who was later created in 1751 1st Baron Fortescue and 1st Earl of Clinton, the son of Hugh Fortescue, lord of the manor of Filleigh, Weare Giffard, etc. whose family is earliest recorded as residing in the 12th century at the manor of Whympston in the parish of Modbury in South Devon. The Fortescue family became major land owners, influential in British and West Country history. Castle Hill is a rare example in Devon of an 18th-century country mansion "on the grand scale". ()