Barnstaple Castle supporter of King Stephen. In 1228, Henry III ordered the Sheriff of Devon to reduce the castle walls to a height of , as recorded in the Close Rolls for that year. By the time of the death of the last Henry de Tracey in 1274, the castle was beginning to decay. The fabric of the castle was used in the construction of other buildings and by 1326 the castle was a ruin. The remaining walls blew down in a storm in 1601. Now only the tree covered motte remains. Barnstaple Castle Barnstaple Castle stood near what is now the
Feudal barony of Barnstaple in 1087. In about 1107, Juhel, who had already founded Totnes Priory, founded Barnstaple Priory, of the Cluniac order, dedicated to St Mary Magdalene. Juhel's son and heir was Alfred de Totnes, who died "sine prole" some time before 1139, leaving two sisters as his co-heiresses each to a moiety of the barony: Aenor and a sister whose name is unknown. The inheritance of the barony of Barnstaple by two co-heiresses split its possession during the period c. 1139 to 1213 into two moieties, which became re-united under the de Tracy family. The descent of the two co-heiresses was as