Prideaux Castle

Prideaux Castle /ˈprɪdɪks/ is a multivallate Iron Age hillfort situated atop a 133 m (435 ft) high conical hill near the southern boundary of the parish of Luxulyan, Cornwall, England, United Kingdom.

There are two entrances, typical of the small hillfort,[4] located on the eastern and northern side (i.e., opposite the fourth wall), where it is most wooded.

Its present use is as a cattle pasture, with a frangible, pinkish stone (possibly Devonian sandstone) forming the substrate.

In the vicinity, there is much evidence of mining for iron, tin and kaolinite, with quarries, pits, shafts and dumps in abundance.

The word castle has long been employed colloquially to designate prehistoric remains of this general type throughout Great Britain.

Even after centuries of deforestation these join to another forest, "North Slope Woods," covering the south side of Luxulyan Valley.

For example, the 18th century Cornish historian Thomas Tonkin derived it from the French phrase près d'eaux "near [the] waters": ...for the sea formerly flowed up as high as this place, till the (tin) stream works choked up its entrance, any one that views the high cliffs under this place, and those on the opposite side of the valley in Tywardreath, must needs be convinced of....This etymology is somewhat implausible for a hilly location at an elevation of some 135 metres located several kilometres from the sea.

Without datable artifacts, the hillfort is nonetheless assigned to the Iron Age of pre-Roman Britain on the basis of its general form.

There are at the present time three inhabited places arranged in an arc or line a few hundred metres to the north of the Castle.

Both of these manors are recorded as held by Richard Fitz Thorold from Robert, Count of Mortain, William the Conqueror's half brother.