Eye Castle 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 . History . 11th – 13th centuries . Eye Castle is a motte and bailey castle , built during the reign of William I by William Malet , who died fighting Hereward the Wake in 1071 . The Malet family also controlled the surrounding Honour of Eye , a significant collection of estates centring on the castle , and the park of Eye . The castle motte is 160 feet ( 49 m ) in diameter and 40 feet ( 12 m ) high , with the bailey approximately 400 feet ( 122m ) by 250 feet ( 76 m ) wide . The castle is unusual in being only of two castles mentioned in the Domesday book on 1086 as a source of income for their owners , due to the presence of a market within the castle , bailey , from which the owner drew revenue ; the castle ' s market competed with the Bishop of Norwich ' s market at Hoxne . William Malet ' s son , Robert , was exiled and after his death at the battle of Tinchebrai in 1106 , Eye was confiscated by Henry I and became a royal castle for a period . Henry gave Eye to his favoured nephew , Stephen of Blois in 1112 . Stephen succeeded to the English throne in 1135 and he gave the honour of Eye first to one of his lieutenants , William of Ypres and then later to Hervey Brito , his son - in - law . At some point during the 1140s , Stephen then transferred the lands to his second son , William . William was still young at the time , and it appears that until he came of age these lands were initially managed by Stephen ' s trusted Royal Steward , William Martel . Meanwhile , the civil war known as the Anarchy had broken out between Stephen and the Empress Matilda between 1138 and 1154 ; much of the fighting occurred in East Anglia , where the powerful Bigod family , headed by Hugh Bigod , attempted to expand their autonomy and influence . Eye Castle did not play a major role in the war as , despite some skirmishing occurring in the region , most of the campaigning was conducted to the west . After coming to power in 1154 , Henry II attempted to re - establish royal influence across the region . Partially as a result of the civil war , Hugh Bigod had come to dominate East Anglia by the late 12th century , holding the title of the Earl of Norfolk and owning the four major castles in the region , Framlingham , Bungay , Walton and Thetford . As part of this effort , Henry confiscated the Bigod castles , from Hugh in 1157 . Despite having made earlier promises to protect him , Henry still saw Stephen ' s son , William , as a potential claimant to the throne , and the king confiscated the castle of Eye as well at the same time . William died in 1159 , allowing Henry to formally acquire and thereby legitimise his control of Eye Castle . Hugh then joined the revolt by Henry ' s sons in 1173 . Eye was attacked by Hugh Bigod in 1173 . Although the attack failed , the castle had to be rebuilt . Two square towers were built on the north side of the inner bailey in the late 12th century , possibly contemporaneously with Framlingham . The castle was protected using the castle - guard system , under which local lands were granted to minor lords in exchange for the contribution of knights and soldiers for the defence of the castle . The castle was attacked and sacked in 1265 during the Second Barons ' War ; it was subsequently largely abandoned . 14th – 21st centuries . 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 .