Mausoleum of Sir James Tillie, Mount Ararat is a Grade II* listed building in the Cornwall local planning authority area, England. First listed on 23 January 1968. A C18 Mausoleum.
Mausoleum of Sir James Tillie, Mount Ararat
- WRENN ID
- hollow-ledge-birch
- Grade
- II*
- Local Planning Authority
- Cornwall
- Constituency
- South East Cornwall MP: Anna Gelderd (Lab)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 23 January 1968
- Type
- Mausoleum
- Address
- Mausoleum of Sir James Tillie, Mount Ararat, Pillaton
- OS grid reference
- SX 406 651
- Coordinates
- 50.46421, -4.2462
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Mausoleum of Sir James Tillie, located at Mount Ararat, is an early 18th-century structure built from slatestone rubble with brick dressings. It features a square plan tower set within a square walled enclosure, and the tower includes a two-storey porch designed in a picturesque Gothic style. The exterior consists of a three-stage tower, with each stage slightly set back and adorned with brick string courses and an embattled parapet. The two-storey porch also has an embattled parapet, with a round brick arch at the front. The inner entrance is blocked, but a small single light has been inserted. On the right side, there is a round-arched brick opening that is also blocked, likely a former door, while the left side has a similar blocked window. The rear features a small opening in the second stage. The surrounding walls are made of rubble and include buttresses on the outer side. At the front, the walls rise to a pair of square plan rubble piers with cornices, and there is a flight of ten stone steps leading to the front, although the flanking walls are partly collapsed.
Inside, the walls are plastered, but the roof and first floor are missing. The rear wall displays a segmental arch with a putto as the keystone, flanked by panels with floral designs. At the front, there is a plaster statue of Sir James Tillie seated on a pedestal. Sir James Tillie passed away on November 17, 1713, and he had requested that upon his death, his body be placed in a chair where he died and set in a walled vault or grotto overlooking Plymouth Sound and Harbour, dressed in his hat, wig, and rings. Circa 1770, his body was removed and replaced by the plaster statue, which is said to be made of plaster but may be covered with another material.
Local climate
Mausoleum of Sir James Tillie, Mount Ararat sits in a wetter-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 1,000 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 80% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 81% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 17 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 84% of listed buildings. Of these, 7 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
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- No sale records on file
- No related consent applications matched
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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