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Summary

Remains of a fortification of unknown type, post-medieval or possibly medieval in date, stood on Mount Holles at least until the late C18.

Protected Status: None recorded

Other References/Statuses

• National Monuments Record: SV 91 SW 59
• National Record of the Historic Environment to Historic Environment Records data transfer
• National Record of the Historic Environment: 304119
• OS No. (OS Quarter-sheet and OS No.): SV91SW 30
• Primary Record No. (1985-2009): 7900.04

Monument Type(s):

• FORT (Medieval to 18th Century - 1066 AD to 1800 AD)

Full description

Prior to the 1994 revision of the Garrison defences SMR, this site was recorded under PRN 7428.01 (b16).
Remains of a fortification of unknown type, post-medieval (pre-mid C17) or possibly medieval in date, stood on Mount Hollis at least until the late C18. The small rounded mount stands above Hugh Town, below the Garrison walls near King George's battery whose earlier name, 'Higher Battery', may refer to it (7906.11). A map of 1655 marks 'Hele Mount' with an irregular oval outline (b1). 'Hele' may refer to it. Use of the site in Roman times has been suggested (7428.02) (b13). 'Hele' may be an early form of 'Hollis', suggesting a medieval origin for the place-name and fortification (b15). The site is shown as an outlying crenellated battery, resembling those of the Garrison walls, on a 1669 print (b2). Thomas (b14) notes "Mount Hollis detached bastion" marked on a 1715 plan (b3). Borlase in 1756 observes that the round hillock "seems to have had a keep on top of it..." (b6). Troutbeck's 1796 survey records "the remains of an old fort, formerly erected to defend the entrance of the garrison... There was a watch-house upon the southern side of it, the walls of which were stripped to build the (Garrison) lines" (b7). It does not appear on an 1834 map (b8). A late C19 photograph shows a sub-circular platform with a footpath cut or worn into its west side (b9), perhaps used as a lookout (b16). The mound is recorded on the 1888 and 1907 OS maps (b10, b11).Thomas notes that the outlying battery seems to have served until the C18 (b14) and gives the Victorian Methodist influenced name 'Mount of Olives' (b13). The 1978 OS fieldworker found the (west) rear of the site now cut by a road, the mound itself a terraced rise in a private garden (h1). In 1993 this was found to have been walled off, levelled and excavated for the construction of a domestic structure and surrounding garden features two years previously (h2).
(b15) - Herring, PC & Parkes, C, 1994, Pers Comm, ,

An account of the ordnance on the Ilses of Scilly in 1554 attributes two guns to the Hugh, with these possibly placed on either Mount Holles or the Folley (17).

The site was visited in 2008-10 (18, 19). No trace could be identified.

--------------------------------
Site history:
1: 1978. NVQ / OS
2: 1993. RATCLIFFE, J / CAU
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Ordnance Survey, 1978, OS78/F50/1 (Photograph). SCO29960.

Ordnance Survey, 1978, OS78/F50/2 (Photograph). SCO29961.

Ordnance Survey, 1978, OS78/F50/6 (Photograph). SCO29962.

<1> UNKNOWN, 1655, A MAP OF THE HEW HILL THE CHEIFFE FFORTIFICATIONS, DD GO 575 (Unedited Source). SCO5445.

<2> Bowley, RL (Ed), 1980, The Fortunate Islands, 53 (Bibliographic reference). SCO5086.

<3> Lilly, C, 1715, A Plan of the Hugh (Unpublished document). SCO3869.

<4> UNKNOWN, 1741, A PLAN OF HUGH GARRISON IN ST MARY'S ISLAND AT SCILLY (Unedited Source). SCO5540.

<5> UNKNOWN, 1742, A PLAN OF HUGH FORT ALIAS THE STAR CASTLE (Unedited Source). SCO5544.

<6> Borlase, W, 1756, Observations on the Ancient and Present State of the Islands of Scilly, 10 (Bibliographic reference). SCO2883.

<7> Troutbeck, J, 1796, Survey of the Ancient and Present State of the Scilly Islands, 53 (Bibliographic reference). SCO4965.

<8> Birch, JF, 1974, Plan of the Garrison on the Island of Saint Mary, Scilly (Bibliographic reference). SCO2851.

<9> GIBSON, A, 1880, HUGH TOWN, 53 (Unedited Source). SCO6365.

<10> Ordnance Survey, 1880s, 1st Edition 1:2500 Map (Cartographic materials). SCO4048.

<11> Ordnance Survey, 1900s, 2nd Edition 1:2500 Map (Cartographic materials). SCO4050.

<12> O'Neil, BH St J, 1961, Isles of Scilly MOW Guide, 22 (Bibliographic reference). SCO4042.

<13> Thomas, AC, 1985, Exploration of a Drowned Landscape, 161 (Bibliographic reference). SCO4611.

<14> THOMAS, AC, 1989, NAMES OF THE BATTERIES ON THE GARRISON, ST MARY'S, ISLES OF SCILLY (Unedited Source). SCO8922.

<17> Miles, TJ and Saunders, AD, 1970, King Charles’s Castle, Tresco, Scilly, 4 (Article in Journal). SCO8073.

<18> Field Investigator's Comments, HE/Bowden, M. and Brodie, A. 2008-10 (Survey). SCO29739.

<19> Bowden, M, 2011, Isles of Scilly Military Defences, 1540-1951: Earthwork Sites and Minor Features, 27 (Cornwall Event Report). SCO25530.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• ECO3819 - Isles of Scilly Military Defences, 1540-1951 (Ref: RDRS 56-2011)
• ECO6309 - The Garrison, St. Mary's: Survey

Related records

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