Castle an Dinas, St. Columb Major - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Castle an Dinas is an Iron Age

Iron Age

The Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...

hillfort near St. Columb Major in Cornwall

Cornwall

Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...

, UK

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

and is considered one of the most important hillforts in the southwest of Britain

Great Britain

Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

. It dates from around the 3rd to 2nd century BCE and consists of three ditch and rampart concentric rings, 850 feet above sea level. During the early 1960s it was excavated by a team led by Dr. Bernard Wailes of the University of Pennsylvania

University of Pennsylvania

The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...

during two seasons of excavation.

Arthurian legend

Traditionally, Castle an Dinas is the hunting lodge (hunting seat) of King Arthur

King Arthur

King Arthur is a legendary British leader of the late 5th and early 6th centuries, who, according to Medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and...

, from which he rode in the Tregoss Moor hunt. A stone in St. Columb allegedly bears the four footprints of his horse made whilst hunting.

The earliest written history was written by William of Worcester

William Worcester

William Worcester , was an English chronicler and antiquary.-Life:He was a son of William of Worcester, a Bristol citizen, and is sometimes called William Botoner, his mother being a daughter of Thomas Botoner from Catalonia....

during his visit to Cornwall in 1478. He noted that legend

Celtic mythology

Celtic mythology is the mythology of Celtic polytheism, apparently the religion of the Iron Age Celts. Like other Iron Age Europeans, the early Celts maintained a polytheistic mythology and religious structure...

says that the fort was the place where Gorlois

Gorlois

Gorlois was a Duke of Cornwall and Igraine's first husband before her marriage to Uther Pendragon, according to the Arthurian legend...

, Duke of Cornwall

Duke of Cornwall

The Duchy of Cornwall was the first duchy created in the peerage of England.The present Duke of Cornwall is The Prince of Wales, the eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II, the reigning British monarch .-History:...

and husband of King Arthur

King Arthur

's mother, died.

Civil War

In March 1646, during the English Civil War

English Civil War

The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...

, Sir Ralph Hopton's Royalist

Cavalier

Cavalier was the name used by Parliamentarians for a Royalist supporter of King Charles I and son Charles II during the English Civil War, the Interregnum, and the Restoration...

troops camped for two nights within the rings of the fort. Here they held a Council of War

Council of war

A council of war is a term in military science that describes a meeting held to decide on a course of action, usually in the midst of a battle. Under normal circumstances, decisions are made by a commanding officer, optionally communicated and coordinated by staff officers, and then implemented by...

where it was decided that they would surrender to the Parliamentarians

Roundhead

"Roundhead" was the nickname given to the supporters of the Parliament during the English Civil War. Also known as Parliamentarians, they fought against King Charles I and his supporters, the Cavaliers , who claimed absolute power and the divine right of kings...

. Only Hopton and Major-General Webb voted against. A few days later Hopton surrendered at Tresillian

Tresillian

Tresillian is a small village in central Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is situated three miles east of Truro on the A390 road.Tresillian was the home of Robert Tresilian, Chief Justice of the King's Bench between 1381 and 1387. A famous event of the English Civil War took place here in 1645...

Bridge near Truro.

Other notable occurrences

Ghost army An extraordinary event that took place at the site was recorded by Cornish historian Samuel Drew

Samuel Drew

Samuel Drew was an Cornish Methodist theologian. A native of Cornwall, he was nicknamed the "Cornish metaphysician" for his works on the human soul, the nature of God, and the deity of Christ. He also wrote on historical and biographical themes.-Early life and education:Drew was born in the...

, a ghost army was seen in the sky above Castle an Dinas around the end of the 18th century : (if true, a most unusual but documented form of mirage

Mirage

A mirage is a naturally occurring optical phenomenon in which light rays are bent to produce a displaced image of distant objects or the sky. The word comes to English via the French mirage, from the Latin mirare, meaning "to look at, to wonder at"...

.)

In 1867, Henry Jenner

Henry Jenner

Henry Jenner FSA was a British scholar of the Celtic languages, a Cornish cultural activist, and the chief originator of the Cornish language revival....

heard a story from an old man at Quoit, near Castle an Dinas, who had seen the ghosts of King Arthur's soldiers drilling there, and remembered the glancing of the moonbeams on their muskets!

Murder In 1904 a young woman was murdered on the site by a jealous lover, he then took his own life.

Midsummer The Old Cornwall Society

Federation of Old Cornwall Societies

The Federation of Old Cornwall Societies was formed in 1924, on the initiative of Robert Morton Nance, with the objective of collecting and maintaining "all those ancient things that make the spirit of Cornwall — its traditions, its old words and ways, and what remains to it of its Celtic language...

hold their traditional annual midsummer

Midsummer

Midsummer may simply refer to the period of time centered upon the summer solstice, but more often refers to specific European celebrations that accompany the actual solstice, or that take place on a day between June 21 and June 24, and the preceding evening. The exact dates vary between different...

bonfires here on the highest point of the fort.

The legend of John Trehenban

In 1671 a man called John Trehenban (1650–1671) of St Columb Major

St Columb Major

St Columb Major is a civil parish and town in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. Often referred to locally as St Columb, it is situated approximately seven miles southwest of Wadebridge and six miles east of Newquay...

, murdered two young girls and was sentenced to imprisonment in a cage

Gibbet

A gibbet is a gallows-type structure from which the dead bodies of executed criminals were hung on public display to deter other existing or potential criminals. In earlier times, up to the late 17th century, live gibbeting also took place, in which the criminal was placed alive in a metal cage...

on Castle an Dinas, and starved to death.

The murder of the two young girls is recorded in the Parish Register.

23 June 1671
Anne daughter of John Pollard of this Parish and Loveday Rosevear (aged 17), daughter of Thomas Rosevear of St Enoder were barbarously murdered on the day before in the home of Captain Peter Pollard at the bridge by one John Trehenban the son of Humphrey and Cissily Trehenban of this Parish at about 11 O' clock in the forenoon upon a market day.

Trehenban pretended to help in finding the murderer riding on horseback following the bloodhounds. His hat blew off and the dogs wouldn't leave it. Eventually he confessed.
The lane where the bloodhound
Bloodhound
The Bloodhound is a large breed of dog which, while originally bred to hunt deer and wild boar, was later bred specifically to track human beings. It is a scenthound, tracking by smell, as opposed to a sighthound, which tracks using vision. It is famed for its ability to discern human odors even...

s picked up the scent is still known as 'Tremmons lane'.
He was placed in a cage which sat on a large rock. This rock is still to be seen and local people used to say that if you ran around this rock fifty times you would hear his chains rattle.
Tremmon begged a passing woman for some food. All she had were a few tallow
Tallow
Tallow is a rendered form of beef or mutton fat, processed from suet. It is solid at room temperature. Unlike suet, tallow can be stored for extended periods without the need for refrigeration to prevent decomposition, provided it is kept in an airtight container to prevent oxidation.In industry,...

candles which he ate ravenously.
According to local historian Marshel Arthur
Marshel Arthur
Marshel Arthur was a china clay worker and historian from Cornwall, UK.After the death of his father Marshel left school at the age of ten in 1889 and began work as a tool boy under his older brother Tom, at Lower Goonamaris China Stone Quarry in January 1890...

, local people used to refer to a no-gooder as 'a right Tremmon'.

Castle-an-Dinas mine

From 1916 to 1957 it was the site of Cornwall's largest wolfram

Wolframite

Wolframite WO4, is an iron manganese tungstate mineral that is the intermediate between ferberite and huebernite . Along with scheelite, the wolframite series are the most important tungsten ore minerals. Wolframite is found in quartz veins and pegmatites associated with granitic intrusives...

mine. Many of the old buildings and workings remain standing. The mine is the type locality

Type locality (geology)

Type locality , also called type area or type locale, is the where a particular rock type, stratigraphic unit, fossil or mineral species is first identified....

for the mineral Russellite

Russellite

Russellite is a bismuth tungstate mineral with the chemical formula Bi2WO6. It crystallizes in the orthorhombic crystal system. Russellite is yellow or yellow-green in color, with a Mohs hardness of 3½....

.
Other minerals found here include: Arsenopyrite

Arsenopyrite

Arsenopyrite is an iron arsenic sulfide . It is a hard metallic, opaque, steel grey to silver white mineral with a relatively high specific gravity of 6.1. When dissolved in nitric acid, it releases elemental sulfur. When arsenopyrite is heated, it becomes magnetic and gives off toxic fumes...

, Cacoxenite

Cacoxenite

Cacoxenite is an iron aluminium phosphate mineral with formula: Fe3+24Al17O612·17. It is associated with iron ores. The name comes from the Greek κăκός for "bad" or "evil" and ξένος for "guest" because the phosphorus content of cacoxenite lessens the quality of iron smelted from ore containing...

, Löllingite

Lollingite

Loellingite, also spelled löllingite, is an iron arsenide mineral with formula FeAs2. It is often found associated with arsenopyrite from which it is hard to distinguish. Cobalt, nickel and sulfur substitute in the structure. The orthorhombic lollingite group includes the nickel iron arsenide...

, Phlogopite

Phlogopite

Phlogopite is a yellow, greenish, or reddish-brown member of the mica family of phyllosilicates. It is also known as magnesium mica.Phlogopite is the magnesium endmember of the biotite solid solution series, with the chemical formula KMg3AlSi3O102. Iron substitutes for magnesium in variable amounts...

, Russellite

Russellite

Topaz

Topaz is a silicate mineral of aluminium and fluorine with the chemical formula Al2SiO42. Topaz crystallizes in the orthorhombic system and its crystals are mostly prismatic terminated by pyramidal and other faces.-Color and varieties:...

Turquoise

Turquoise is an opaque, blue-to-green mineral that is a hydrous phosphate of copper and aluminium, with the chemical formula CuAl648·4. It is rare and valuable in finer grades and has been prized as a gem and ornamental stone for thousands of years owing to its unique hue...

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