Page:The parochial history of Cornwall.djvu/270

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
228
ST. COLOMB MAJOR.

land, displayed in open downs like those of Roach, to which they adjoin.

Castle-An-Dinas[1] is situated on one of the highest hills in the hundred of Penwith, commanding an extensive view over the western extremity of Cornwall, from St. Ives to the Land's End. Borlase gives the following description of its remains: "Castle-An-Dinas consisted of two stone walls, one within the other in a circular form, surrounding the area of the hill. The rains are now fallen on each side the walls, and show the work to have heen of great height and thickness. There was also a third, or outer wall, built more than halfway round. Within the walls are many little inclosures of a circular form, about seven yards diameter, with little walls round them of two or three feet high, they appear to have been so many huts for the shelter of the garrison. The diameter of the whole fort from east to west is four hundred feet, and the principal ditch sixty feet. Towards the south, the sides of the hill are marked by two large green paths, about ten feet wide. Near the middle of the area is a well, almost choked up with its own ruins, and at a little distance a narrow pit, its sides walled round, probably for water also, now filled up."

It is to be regretted that Borlase did not publish a plan to illustrate his description of this Castle, as it has been much dilapidated since his time. A tower was built on the site of the outer wall about forty years ago, by Mr. Rogers, of Penrose; and subsequent reparations have not contributed towards a restotation of the old walls. Nor are there any perceptible remains of the inclosures,

  1. Extracted from an "Account of certain Hill Castles, near the Land's End in Cornwall," by William Cotton, Esq. F.S.A. printed in the Archæologia, vol. XXII. where a plan and section of Castle-An-Dinas will be found, taken with greater care than that in Lysons's Cornwall. In the Gentleman's Magazine, LXXII. p. 393, are engravings of two stone weights found within the inner circle of this fortress. The weight of one was seventeen pounds and a half; and that of the other three pounds one ounce.