PIEL CASTLE

Lancashire

The loss of the Furness peninsula to Cumbria in 1974 robbed Lancashire of one of its best Castles, and certainly its most wonderfully situated.

Piel Castle, often called "Fouldry Island Castle" stands on a small island, Piel Island, south of Barrow-in-Furness and Walney Island on the northern edge of Morecambe Bay.

A fortification stood here soon after the founding of Furness Abbey, but the present ruin dates back to soon after Bannockburn.  The Castle was raided by Robert the Bruce in 1316.  He returned again six years later but was bought off by Abbot John Cockerham.  The Abbot received a licence to crenellate in 1327, but the Castle was almost certainly half finished by that point.  It is possible it was never entirely completed as Furness Abbey was one of the poorer abbeys of England.  The Castle is formed of one half of a quadrangular courtyard type Castle, although much of the south has been washed into the sea - big chunks of masonry lie on the foreshore.

In 1487 Lambert Simnel, a Yorkist Pretender for England's throne, landed here on his way to defeat at the Battle of Stoke.

The Castle seems to have fallen into ruin mostly as a result of its very isolated and windswept position.  It is today owned by English Heritage and is accessible by ferry from Roa Island (part of the mainland) - this ferry being little more than a rowing boat!

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2001