Qualla: Piel Castle

Piel Castle: Introduction

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Stevvvv4444, CC BY-SA 4.0. A monk built this castle, which is not the way these stories usually start. In 1327, the Abbot of Furness, John Cockerham, persuaded Edward III to grant him a licence to crenellate a small island at the mouth of Walney Channel. The abbey had been raided twice by Scots, in 1316 and again in 1322. Wool money was at stake, and so were the lives of the brothers. So the abbot turned mason, gathered stones from the beach right under his feet, and raised a keep and two baileys on a 26-acre dot of land in Morecambe Bay.

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Image: Stevvvv4444 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Piel Castle: Stones from the Beach

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Hchc2009, CC BY-SA 3.0. Architectural historian Anthony Emery thinks Piel was built in three nervous phases. The central keep came first, almost a fortified summer house for the abbot's use. Then, as Scottish raids worsened and the crenellation licence loosened the church's hand, the inner bailey wall w...

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Image: Hchc2009 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Piel Castle: Wool and Other Sins

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit James T M Towill, CC BY-SA 2.0. Officially, English wool in the 14th and 15th centuries could only be sold legally through Calais. Unofficially, plenty of it went out through Piel. Merchants in Calais wrote angry letters about Furness monks moving fleeces through their island fortress and bypassing the staple a...

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Image: James T M Towill | CC BY-SA 2.0

Piel Castle: A Pretender Comes Ashore

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Gareth Page. The original uploader was GPage at English Wikipedia., Public domain. In June 1487, a ten-year-old boy named Lambert Simnel stepped onto Piel Island claiming to be the Earl of Warwick and the rightful king of England. He was almost certainly a baker's son coached by a priest, but two thousand German mercenaries and four thousand Irish soldiers came...

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Image: Gareth Page. The original uploader was GPage at English Wikipedia. | Public domain

Piel Castle: Wordsworth and the Sea

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Alexander Baxevanis, CC BY 2.0. After the Dissolution in 1537, Piel passed to the Crown, then to the Duke of Albemarle after 1660, then on to the Dukes of Buccleuch. In 1805 the painter Sir George Beaumont set up his easel and made Peele Castle in a Storm, all crashing wave and black weather. William Wordsworth...

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Image: Alexander Baxevanis | CC BY 2.0

Piel Castle: Still There, For Now

Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Rob Farrow, CC BY-SA 2.0. Today Piel Castle is in the care of English Heritage, and access is free once you reach the island by ferry from Roa Island or by walking the sands from Walney at low tide. The Guardian listed Piel in 2022 among the English castles most at risk from coastal erosion. The same beac...

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Image: Rob Farrow | CC BY-SA 2.0