Cayl Castle

Description

Cayl Castle, in Phillack parish, is a mile east of Riviere. (Leland)

Cayle-Castle, Castle-Cayle or Kayel, spoken of by Leland, with a moat and a keep, belongs to the heirs of John Curnow, Esq.; there is a farm-house within the moat: we find no intimation of the ancient proprietors of this castle: another castle is spoken of by Leland, as almost at the mouth of the Hayle, called Rivier or Theodore's Castle; the site of which has been buried by the sands. The Riviere estate belongs to the Cornish Copper Company, who are possessed also of Trevassack, and part of Ventonleage. Treglisson is the property of Mr. Richard Nicholls. (Lysons)

Castle Kayle is marked on current OS map editions. It is first recorded by William Worcestre, who referred to it as the ruined 'Castellum Treclysten' . Leland calls it 'Cayl Castelle' in the early C16. The Tithe Award records the field-names of 'Little Rounds' and 'Round Moor' for enclosures at Castle Kayle. The author of b3 says "at Castle Cayle there are two circular enclosures, each consisting of a rampart and outer ditch. The little round is some 40 yards in diameter, and the great round about 60. The latter lies to the west of the former and is on somewhat higher ground. These rounds are so close to one another that at one point the ditches unite". Edmonds recorded that by 1861 the ditch between the enclosures (to the east) had been infilled, as had the ditch nearest the road (on the west side). Much of the earthwork was levelled to make a garden for a newly erected cottage at the roadside. Henderson appears to have originally thought that Castle Kayle was a medieval work but he described it as two ovate camps. He also mentions a third camp to the west of the road that was destroyed in the 1870s. He is probably wrong on the final point as other sources (eg. Edmonds) do not mention a third camp. Carr describes the site as a single earthwork but with "irregularities on the east side". He suggests that the entrance originally lay on the north-west side where a cottage had been built (this is probably the cottage mentioned by Edmonds). Survey by the OS in 1965 indicates that the major earthwork has a well preserved rampart on the west and on the south-west, where it is augmented by an outer ditch, now used as a fieldway. Elsewhere the rampart has been entirely destroyed although the ditch survives on the south and east sides. The lesser enclosure is represented by a scarp centred at SW 5843 3547. Its defensive situation, size, and shape are more typical of an Iron Age round than a hillfort. The smaller enclosure is simply annexed to the larger one. Recent OS maps and field visits indicate that although this is a scheduled site, there has been considerably encroachment of the earthwork by farm buildings and some removal of field boundaries has rendered the prehistoric enclosures less clear. The round is visible on air photographs as a curvilinear bank, whilst the appended enclosure, with south-east facing entrance, is visible only as a crop mark. (Cornwall & Scilly HER)

Comments

Gatehouse thanks Chris Bond for identify this as Kayle Castle an Iron Age Round.