Castle Horneck (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Iron Castle; Hornocke

In the civil parish of Penzance.
In the historic county of Cornwall.
Modern Authority of Cornwall.
1974 county of Cornwall.
Medieval County of Cornwall.

OS Map Grid Reference: SW45743026
Latitude 50.11785° Longitude -5.55797°

Castle Horneck has been described as a probable Masonry Castle.

There are no visible remains.

This is a Grade 2* listed building protected by law*.

Description

Vanished possible C12 castle near Penzance. Grade 2-star listed C18 house on presumed site. From Polsue - About a quarter of a mile to the west of Penzance is Castle Horneck, the Iron-castle thought to be the site of a castle so denominated from its supposed strength, and built by the family of Tyes, who were lords of this district early in the times of the Plantagenets, and whose title as baron Tyes became extinct in 1322. "Castle Hornocke, " writes Norden , "an auntient ruyned castle standinge on a mounte nere Pensans , and as it seemeth in former times of some accompte." (Spreadbury)

Norden refers to Castle Horneck as an ancient ruined castle standing on a mount near Penzance. A note in the Western Antiquary states: "Castle Horneck (iron castle) ancient baronial castle of Baron Tyes, small remnant built into the eighteenth century mansion of the Borlase family." The OS suggests that Castle Horneck was once the name for Lesingey Round. In 1696 a field name at Lesingey was "Castle Close". The place name "Castle Horneck" survives as the name of a farm and house 400m east of Lesingey Round, currently in use as a Youth Hostel. (Cornwall & Scilly HER)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Listed Building number(s) 1143172
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 424095.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 31699.

Books
- Spreadbury, I. D., 1984, Castles in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly (Redruth)
  Polsue, Joseph, 1870, A complete parochial history of the county of Cornwall (William Lake, Truro and John Camden Hotten, London) Vol. 3 p. 221- online transcription online copy
  See Lesingey Round record for full bibliography.
Periodical Articles
- Edmonds, R., 1849, 'On the Hill-Castle, Cliff-Castles, and other supposed British Dwelling-places, near Penzance' Transactions of Penzance Natural History and Antiquarian Society Vol. 1 p. 343 online copy
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Nick Cahill with Stef Russell, September 2003, Cornwall & Scilly Urban Survey: Penzance (Cornwall County Council) Download copy

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The information on this web page may be derived from information compiled by and/or copyright of Historic England, County Historic Environment Records and other individuals and organisations. It may also contain information licensed under the Open Government Licence. All the sources given should be consulted to identify the original copyright holder and permission obtained from them before use of the information on this site for commercial purposes.
The author and compiler of Gatehouse does not receive any income from the site and funds it himself. The information within this site is provided freely for educational purposes only.

The bibliography owes much to various bibliographies produced by John Kenyon for the Council for British Archaeology, the Castle Studies Group and others.

Suggestions for finding online and/or hard copies of bibliographical sources can be seen at this link.
Minor archaeological investigations, such as watching brief reports, and some other 'grey' literature is most likely to be held by H.E.R.s but is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded here, or elsewhere, but some suggestions can be found here.

The possible site or monument is represented on maps as a point location. This is a guide only. It should be noted that OS grid references defines an area, not a point location. In practice this means the actual center of the site or monument may often, but not always, be to the North East of the point shown. Locations derived from OS grid references and from latitude longitiude may differ by a small distance.
Further information on mapping and location can be seen at this link.

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Help is acknowledged.

*The listed building may not be the actual medieval building, but a building on the site of, or incorporating fragments of, the described site.

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