Castle Dore, King Mark's Hillfort

Dore, King Mark's Hillfort

At the very end of a successful March 2005 day's walking and research in the general area of Fowey, I drove back up the Fowey to Lostwithiel road and parked in a handy pull-in by Castle Dore Farm and walked up the road to Castle Dore itself. The sun was rapidly sinking and I was only just in time to get a heavily shadowed photo. Originally this was a minor iron age hill fort, apparently occupied by a small village during the last three centuries BC. Much as I enjoy hill forts, this was not my interest. What I had come for was the claimed site of the Palace of Marcus Cunomorus, King Mark of Cornwall, during the first half of the 6th century. The palace was apparently a wooden hall. The site has been excavated but I have been unable to unearth any reports of the archaeology on the web and it is more likely that Lantyan Farm was the real site. Mark appears to have been of Welsh origin, son of King Meirion, and himself to have ruled first Cornwall and later Brittany. In legend he is usually described as 'The Evil King Mark' for his treatment of his wife and son. He appears in Arthurian legend as an enemy defeated by the Knights of the Round Table. Two miles down the road to Fowey is the Tristan Stone, recording the death of the Tristan of 'Tristan and Isolde' fame, nephew of King Mark and lover of Isolde or Yseult.

See also Roche Rock.

Castle Dore, western rampart and plaque

Off B3269, 3 miles N of Fowey, just N of the Golant turning

Castle