Castle Dore Hill Fort

Historical Significance

Although today we call it a castle or fort, the purpose of hillforts is unclear, and at different times the monument may have had different uses. In the 1930’s the site was partially excavated by Raleigh Radford who believed he had found the “royal hall of King Mark” who is supposed to have lived in the Early Medieval Period and was mentioned in the legend of Tristan and Iseult. However, more modern dating of the finds has suggested the earthworks to be much older.

The ramparts probably had a wooden palisade wall on top making access across the two steep ditches and banks incredibly difficult. The entrance could have been remodelled several times with banks and ditches being built and dismantled. This reorganisation is common at Hillforts, where defences could become complex obstacles to navigate. At Castle Dore there likely would have been a gate at the entrance, possibly to help keep their livestock such as cattle, goats and pigs safe within the ramparts, and any unwelcome visitors out.

As a settlement, this defendable position is an obvious choice as a centre of power for a tribal chief, a secure place to store the excess from the harvest, as well as livestock that provides the people in the Iron Age with enough to eat during the winter.

In the centre of the monument is a clear, flat enclosed area where round houses have been found, perhaps an entire village lived within the ramparts.

It has also been suggested that hillforts were communal places, built on tribal boundaries where meetings were held between leaders, possibly for trading, making important decisions or ritual purposes with very little defensive or militaristic purpose. It could be that different hillforts were built for various reasons, and that those purposes changed through time.

Castle Dore has a a rich history of research, including excavation. A review of the 1930’s excavations published in Cornish Archaeology in 1985 provides detail and discussion of three key phases of occupation at the site. In its initial 4th Century BC construction, the hillfort included the two sets of ramparts we see today, with the outer earthwork swinging outwards at the entrance to create a second enclosed space. Historic records suggest a significant third enclosure which has now vanished from the ground but may be represented in the geophysical survey anomalies recorded by the Monumental Improvement Project. Houses were built and their foundations, cut through the shillet, and post holes dug to hold the roof have been across the excavated trenches, but their dating cannot be assigned to any specific period due to a lack of finds or clear stratigraphy.

Following a period of abandonment which studies have shown was common practise at similar sites, where evidence of cycles of occupation and abandonment contribute to archaeologists being able to build a clearer timeline of construction and alteration than sites which have longer periods of occupation.

The third phase at Castle Dore is defined by a strengthening of the ramparts, with the inner bank heightened and the ditch recut as well as a substantial timber gate, with a possible bridge built at the entrance. More houses possibly date to this later phase, and much of this archaeology has been affected by later ploughing of the interior.

The fourth phase of Castle Dore’s use included some minor alterations and heightening to small areas of ramparts, construction of a roadway, two oval structures and a new style of building, where post holes has been packed tightly with edge set slabs of stone. These strengthened post holes did not form an obvious arrangement on their own, but when considered with other post holes which may have had packing stones since disturbed through packing were the basis of the original ‘palace of King Mark’ interpretation. However, a modern interpretation based on comparisons with the widely excavated Danebury or Moel y Gaer has suggested these four and six post structures were more likely of Iron Age origin, not a later, early medieval phase of use and may represent the remains of a granaries.

Other possible interpretations of the complex of post holes are stake walled houses, leaving the possibility for a much more complex building sequence with frequent replacement of structures.

Although the modern interpretation of the site puts the significant building activity in pre-history, there are several features from later date at the site, including medieval quarrying at the inner gate, and possible lazy beds to the north of the outer bank.