Cass ny Hawin, Isle of Man (The Gatehouse Record)

Cass ny Hawin

In the parish of Santon.
On the Isle of Man.

OS Map Grid Reference: SC29736949
Latitude 54.09090° Longitude -4.60424°

Cass ny Hawin has been described as a Timber Castle although is doubtful that it was such.

There are earthwork remains.

Description

On both sides of Santon River at Cass ny Hawin lies one promontory fort (damaged by erosion) with a ditch across the neck and surrounded by an earthen bank. Viking or post Viking by analogy with an excavated site {The analogy probably applies to the pre-Viking fort excavated 1955 at Poyll Vaaish which cancels Bersu's excavation as dating value} (Bersu; Kermode).
Topographically, by its size and construction, this fort is similar to the 1-800 AD (poss 5-6th C) Promontory fort at (SC 26 NW 1). It utilizes an almost vertical drop in the north and west and is surrounded by a periphery bank with a max internal height of 1.7m. Another ditch on the landward side is almost ploughed out and the remaining portion has a max width of 5.0m. The max depth from the outer lip is 1.1m with the drop from the top of the periphery bank 2.5m. The bank has several probably modern breaks on the landward side but no original entrance could be detected. The fort is grass covered and no trace of internal habitations was found (F1 DE 07.12.55). (PastScape)

very small promontory fort on coastal headland, capable of containing only a single dwelling, and thus coming within the normal definition of a castle, though their original data is Iron Age. reoccupied in the Viking period or even later (dates are uncertain) to form homesteads at least partly fortified (King 1983)

Comments (by Philip Davis)

Called a 'possible' castle by King (1983) although he tended to use this term for sites for which he had significant doubts.
Nothing in the landscape suggests high status medieval use of the site.

Sources of information, references and further reading

The National Monument Record number(s), or equivalent, for this site is/are 29926.
Further information may be available from http://www.gov.im/mnh/.

Books
- King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 p. 550 (possible)
  Kermode, P.M.C., 1930, List of Manx Antiquities (Douglas) p. 68 online transcription
Periodical Articles
- Gelling, P.S., 1959, 'Excavation of a promontory fort at Cass ny Hawin, Malew, Isle of Man' Proceedings of the Isle of Man Natural History and Antiquarian Society Vol. 6.1 p. 28-38
  Bersu, G., 1949, 'A Promontory Fort on the Shore of Ramsey Bay, Isle of Man' The Antiquaries Journal Vol. 29.1 p. 77-9 Cambridge Journals online abstract

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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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This record last updated on Tuesday, August 11, 2015

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