page_title: Eye Castle
section_title: 14th–21st centuries
hierarchical_section_title: Eye Castle / History / 14th–21st centuries
caption_attribution_description: Thatched cottage with Eye Castle behind
context_page_description: Eye Castle is a motte and bailey medieval castle with a prominent Victorian addition in the town of Eye, Suffolk. Built shortly after the Norman conquest of England in 1066, the castle was sacked and largely destroyed in 1265. Sir Edward Kerrison built a stone house on the motte in 1844: the house later decayed into ruin, becoming known as Kerrison's Folly in subsequent years.
context_section_description: By the 14th century, Eye Castle lay largely in ruins, although parts of the castle continued to be maintained as a prison. Despite the ruined nature of the castle, the local estates previously subject to the castle-guard system continued to return their dues, now converted into monetary rents, to the owners of Eye Castle for many years. A windmill was built on top of the motte between 1561-2. In the early 17th century, like many other medieval Suffolk parks, the park of Eye around the castle was broken up and turned into fields.
  In the 1830s a workhouse and a school were built inside the castle bailey. In 1844 the owner, Sir Edward Kerrison, demolished a later windmill that had been built on the motte, and replaced it with a domestic house. Kerrison had the dwelling built for his batman, who had saved his life at the battle of Waterloo in 1815. The house resembled a shell keep, and was built of flint and had living quarters built into the walls on the south and west. The building fell into ruins, being damaged in high winds during 1965 and collapsing further in 1965. It is now sometimes now referred to as Kerrison's Folly. The mound and some stone fragments of the original castle still remain intact, and the site is a scheduled monument and a Grade 1 listed building.
caption: Eye Castle, overlooking the local town
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