Kingswear Castle Britain's last steam powered river paddle steamer
1924 - 2024
Sail on
Kingswear Castle
Kingswear Castle has finished her 2025 season. She will return in 2026 for her 102nd year of service.
Kingswear Castle is operated on behalf of the Paddle Steamer Kingswear Castle Trust by the Dartmouth Steam Railway and River Boat Company.
Click on the button below to visit the operator’s website for timetable and ticketing information.
History of
Kingswear Castle
Built in 1924 for service on the River Dart in Devon between Dartmouth and Totnes, Kingswear Castle was withdrawn in 1965.
Purchased by volunteers in 1967 who painstakingly restored her to operating condition over ten years, entering service on the Medway and the Thames in 1985.
In 2012 she returned home to the Dart.
Support
Kingswear Castle
Kingswear Castle returned to service in 2023 after the first part of a major rebuild. We are continuing to fund raise for the second phase.
Find out how you can help with this to secure her future for the next twenty five years.
For information and enquiries regarding tickets, timetables and sailing updates please visit the Dartmouth Steam Railway & River Boat Company website www.dartmouthrailriver.co.uk or call 01803 555 872.
19th October 2025:
Season 2025 Lake Geneva
2025 was not a good summer season for the CGN paddle steamers on Lake Geneva with only the diesel electric Italie and Vevey in service during the peak weeks out
11th October 2025:
2025 Season in Switzerland
The Dampferzeitung magazine has asked the managements of paddle steamers on a number of the Swiss lakes for their assessments of how the 2025 season has panned out for them.
1st October 2025:
Lake Geneva October 2025
The CGN has published the timetable for October on Lake Geneva. Montreux and Italie are scheduled to be in service every day until Sunday 12th October with Montreux based at
John Megoran recalls the heyday and decline paddle steamers, particularly the Weymouth based paddle steamers that he grew up with. He did not know then that he would go on to help restore, manage and be principal captain of Kingswear Castle for nearly 30 years.
1st January 1960:
Consul
Sixty years ago on 1st January 1960 Weymouth experienced yet another example of its quite regular floods as the next picture of Consul berthed just upstream of the Town Bridge
31st December 1958:
Cosens’s Charles Kaile
On Wednesday 31st December 1958 Charles Henry James Kaile retired as Secretary and General Manager of paddle steamer operators Cosens & Co after a career spanning 56 years with the company
30th December 1967:
Queen of the South
On Saturday 30th December 1967 Queen of the South, ex Jeanie Deans, was in the scrapyard on the River Scheldt in Antwerp. The failure of the business cost her owner Don
29th December 1993:
Kingswear Castle
Before Christmas in 1993 I was chewing the fat with the nice lady who then ran the marketing department of the Historic Dockyard Chatham over a cup of coffee in
The latest threefour of 0 paddle steamer orientated articles produced monthly by John Megoran, author, manager and principal captain of Kingswear Castle for nearly 30 years on both the Medway and Thames as well as the River Dart.
January 2026:
Three Men in a Boat
Note the eau de nil green paint. This was around the time that surgeons started to wear green gowns in operating theatres allegedly because it was a more soothing colour
December 2025:
Same But Different
When airlines order new planes they often do so in batches. “We’ll have ten like that please.” And when they come all ten are the same in pretty much every
November 2025:
Paddle Steamers at Bognor
As the craze for visiting the seaside escalated Bognor Regis acquired a pier in its original form in 1865. Up to the 1890s the paddle steamers sailing on the Sussex
October 2025:
Collecting
The conductor Richard Bonynge, who has just celebrated his 95th birthday, confesses that he sees his passion for collecting as a disease. His Chalet Monet in Les Avants above Montreux
