Devon County Council

Warfare and defence have left a considerable mark on Devon's landscape. Massive hillforts of Iron Age date occupy strategic positions on hills and promontories. Above-ground traces of some Roman forts survive, as do parts of the Roman defences at Exeter. Lydford has Saxon defensive banks, and there are many Norman motte and bailey castles, although only a few of these developed into medieval masonry castles as at Okehampton.

Coastal artillery fortifications began in the Tudor period and reached their peak in the 19th century around Plymouth, with chains of forts and batteries, facing both out to sea and inland.

The Second World War has left a legacy of anti-invasion defences, such as pill boxes, anti-tank devices and anti-aircraft emplacements, alongside evidence of the air and sea counter-offensive, especially airfields and D-Day training and embarkation areas.