The Gatehouse website record for Carne Godolphin

In the civil parish of Breage. In the historic county of Cornwall (Modern Authority of Cornwall, 1974 county of Cornwall).

Leland writes "the main seat of the Godolphins, with a ditch and a tower, used to be at Carne Godolphin on top of a hill. The ditch is still to be seen there, and much masonry has recently been taken taken from the site. It is three miles ENE of St Michael's Mount. (Chandler)" In Toulmin-Smith this entry is "Cairdine an old mansion of the Cowlines, wher now William Godalcan dwellith. Carne Godalcan on the top of an hille, wher is a diche, and there was a pile and principal habitation of the Godolcans. The diche yet apperith, and many stones of late time hath beene fetchid thes; it is a 3. miles from S. Michael's Mont by est north est."
Clearly the replacement house to this 'pile' was Godolphin House at SW601318 and next to this is a large, round, natural hill call Gololphin Hill - the summit centre at SW592312. However, apart from some pillow mounds there is no evidence of occupation on this hill and not even a footpath to the summit. Just SW of it is a taller and steeper hill, seemingly called Mount Whistle, which has the remains of an Iron Age hill fort called Castle Pencaire and a disused quarry and I believe this is Leland's Carne Godalcan. This seems a most unlikely situation for a medieval high status dwelling (but cf. Carn Brea (qv), but is the sort of site given fanciful histories. Chandler's transcription of "stones" for "masonry" seems misleading to me. I suspect Leland was given a story of an ancient house at this site to give kudos to the Gololphin family. Howver, Castle Pencaire has not been excavated and the site is damaged by many small quarry pits so the possibility of a medieval dwelling can not be totally excluded.

The Ordnance Survey Map Grid Reference is SW59933004

Sources of information, references and further reading

This site's English Heritage (PastScape) Defra or Monument number is 424956
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