Caerhayes is a small parish, consisting of a church, a castle and two or three farms, it lies near the sea between two headlands, Dodman and Pennare
to have arrived in England here. The spelling of Caerhayes has varied over the years, I have found it spelt many ways, the earliest, in a document dated 1287 where a Robert de Karyhaes is witness to a quit claim between Sir Oliver de Arundell and Thomas Lord of Trempoll. It is assumed that the prefix “Caer” is linked with the hill on which the church now stands but Henderson states that he is inclined to believe that it comes from the Cornish “carou” or “cerou” meaning deer. This ancient
hill and lands on which the deer roamed is now swallowed up by the park and grounds of the estate on which stands the
19th century castle built by the Bettesworth-Trevanion family and designed by Victorian architect John Nash.
Extract from my yet unpublished story of The Family of Blanchminster.