the first floor and was designed to hold a portcullis. The one-storey gun room was approximately across with five embrasures for guns and a flat roof that also probably supported artillery. Both the gun room and the main block were probably protected by parapets. The gun room has been lost to erosion, although the south-western embrasure is still visible where it fell onto the beach below. The ashlar facings of the blockhouse have been largely robbed, although some elements remain, and the roof and floors have been lost. Historic England considers that the castle "represents one of the most substantial examples" of an unaltered 16th-century blockhouse in England. The castle originally had an outer ward, reached over a bridge, and stables, although these have been both been lost. Protective rectangular earthworks were constructed to protect the castle on the landward side, probably in 1623, with two bastions in the north and west corners, and some form of stone structure along the earthworks. In the 18th century these earthworks were described as forming a "deep trench" and mid-19th century accounts suggested that they were around deep. Now only of the bank and ditch survives, with the earthworks approximately wide overall and deep between the top of the bank and the base of the ditch. The north bastion still survives largely intact, although the west has been mostly destroyed. Outside the entrance to the earthworks are the Sandsfoot Gardens, civic gardens dating from 1951, designed in a Tudor style with an ornamental pond. See also Castles in Great Britain and Ireland List of castles in England Notes References Bibliography External links Sandsfoot Castle and the Rodwell Trail website Tourist attractions in Weymouth, Dorset Device Forts Buildings and structures in Weymouth, Dorset Forts in Dorset Ruins in Dorset Grade II* listed castles Grade II* listed buildings in Dorset Ruined castles in England 1541 establishments in England