Piel Castle also known as Fouldry (or Fouldrey) Castle, is a castle situated on the south-eastern point of Piel Island

Piel Island

Piel Island lies half a mile off the southern tip of the Furness Peninsula in the administrative county of Cumbria, though historically within Lancashire north of the sands. It is located at . It is one of the Islands of Furness in Northern England...

, 1 km off the southern tip of the Furness

Furness

Furness is a peninsula in south Cumbria, England. At its widest extent, it is considered to cover the whole of North Lonsdale, that part of the Lonsdale hundred that is an exclave of the historic county of Lancashire, lying to the north of Morecambe Bay....

 Peninsula, protecting the deep water harbour of Barrow-in-Furness

Barrow-in-Furness

Barrow-in-Furness is an industrial town and seaport which forms about half the territory of the wider Borough of Barrow-in-Furness in the county of Cumbria, England. It lies north of Liverpool, northwest of Manchester and southwest from the county town of Carlisle...

  in north west England..

History

A wooden tower was built on the island in 1212, when King John

John of England

John , also known as John Lackland , was King of England from 6 April 1199 until his death...

 allowed the monks of Furness Abbey

Furness Abbey

Furness Abbey, or St. Mary of Furness is a former monastery situated on the outskirts of the English town of Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria. The abbey dates back to 1123 and was once the second wealthiest and most powerful Cistercian monastery in the country, behind only Fountains Abbey in North...

 to store provisions there. The abbey engaged in much trade through Piel Harbour and further fortified the site soon after the Scottish invasions of 1316 and 1322. In 1327 Edward III

Edward III of England

Edward III was King of England from 1327 until his death and is noted for his military success. Restoring royal authority after the disastrous reign of his father, Edward II, Edward III went on to transform the Kingdom of England into one of the most formidable military powers in Europe...

 gave Furness Abbey a license to crenellate the tower and a motte and bailey castle was built. It was dismantled in 1403 but then partly rebuilt some years later. However it was in ruins by the 16th century. Some renovations took place in the mid-19th century. There is also a popular myth which sates that Piel Castle is linked to the nearby Furness Abbey via a tunnel.

Design

The castle was a concentric

Concentric

Concentric objects share the same center, axis or origin with one inside the other. Circles, tubes, cylindrical shafts, disks, and spheres may be concentric to one another...

 fortification with a keep

Keep

A keep is a type of fortified tower built within castles during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars have debated the scope of the word keep, but usually consider it to refer to large towers in castles that were fortified residences, used as a refuge of last resort should the rest of the...

 and three towers surrounded by a ditch. A well preserved keep and two baileys remain today.

Confusion

Piel Castle is sometimes confused with Peel Castle

Peel Castle

thumb|250px|right|Chancel of the Cathedral of St. GermanPeel Castle is a castle in Peel, Isle of Man originally constructed by Vikings. The castle stands on St Patrick's Isle which is connected to the town by causeway...

, located on the Isle of Man

Isle of Man

The Isle of Man , otherwise known simply as Mann , is a self-governing British Crown Dependency, located in the Irish Sea between the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, within the British Isles. The head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, who holds the title of Lord of Mann. The Lord of Mann is...

, some thirty miles to the west. This often occurs in reference to the William Wordsworth

William Wordsworth

William Wordsworth was a major English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with the 1798 joint publication Lyrical Ballads....

poem that describes Piel, but is based upon a spelling of the Castle as 'Peele'.

Sources

• http://www.ecastles.co.uk/piel.html
• http://www.thecumbriadirectory.com/Tourist_Attractions/Castles/castle_view.php?castle=piel_island_castle
• http://homepage.mac.com/philipdavis/English%20sites/655.html
• Fry, P.S The David & Charles Book of Castles, David & Charles, London, 1980. ISBN 0715379763