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Prehistory and the Dark Ages |
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| Cornwall abounds in antiquities, mostly on Bodmin Moor and in West Penwith. Some require quite a walk, some hill climbing. Most are well worth the effort. Those easily reached by car or short easy walk are indicated by a star. Click the area name below to go to its index. |
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WEST
PENWITH
Beyond St. Ives and Penzance is perhaps the most productive part of Cornwall for the seeker after antiquities. There is something of everything here: stone circles, massive bronze age barrows, quoits or dolmens, iron age villages, fogous and impressive menhirs or longstones. Antiquities reviewed include Zennor and Mulfra Quoits, Chun Castle and Quoit, Chysauster and Carn Euny iron age villages, massive Bollowal Barrow, Pendeen Vau fogou and the Merry Maidens stone circle. Many sites are on the hills and offer superlative views, sometimes, as from Chapel Carn Brea, as far as the Isles of Scilly. Image Bollowal Barrow. |
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BODMIN
MOOR
Cornwall's major area of open moorland lies roughly central to its eastern half, in an area loosely bounded by Camelford, Altarnun, North Hill, St. Cleer, St. Neot, Bodmin and St. Breward. It is an area of ancient hill settlements, many dating from the Bronze Age but continuing right through to the medieval period. On this page I have covered only the major sites; many others are mentioned in passing on my Bodmin Moor page, mainly devoted to walks. The most concentrated area, around Minions, includes the Hurlers and Pipers, Trethevy Quoit, King Doniert's Stones and Stowe's Hill. Image Nine Stones Circle. |
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OTHER
SITES
These are spread all around the rest of Cornwall and include sites both on the coast and inland. The period is neolithic to medieval and the antiquities include Carwynnen Quoit, Long Cross Inscribed Stone, Roche Rock medieval hermitage and two stones which may or may not be what is claimed for them - the Arthur Stone at Slaughterbridge and the Tristan Stone near Fowey. What particularly strikes me is the number of hill forts and cliff castles; most impressive of these are Castle an Dinas hill fort and The Rumps cliff castle. St. Breock Downs is the most prolific area. Image Roche Rock. |
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To someone like
me, who likes to walk on the high moorland, where most are to be found,
Cornwall is a real treasure trove of antiquities. In that category
I include: neolithic and bronze age burial cairns, dolmens and stone
circles; iron age and early Christian era hill forts, small fortified
farmsteads, villages, fogous and inscribed stones; major standing
stones of indeterminate period; and a few medieval sites like Penhallam
Manor. In addition to those sites described here, a number of others
of minor importance will be found on my Coast
and Country pages, mostly under West
Penwith and Bodmin Moor.
Relatively few of these sites can be reached by car or with just a short
fairly level walk; these are shown in the index with a *star.
Some sites need good walking boots and stamina.
Other categories - bridges, Cornish crosses, cliff castles, boundary stones and old direction signs - can be found on my Miscellanea page. If you would like to consult the experts - and I don't include myself in that category - I suggest you may like to look at: The Modern Antiquarian or Megalithic Portal |
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| Formed as recently as 1985, Cornwall Heritage Trust is surprisingly little known. Its purposes are to acquire land of particular beauty or historic, cultural or religious significance; and to preserve and restore buildings, artefacts and other items of particular artistic, aesthetic, historic, cultural, religious or other significance. At the time of writing (March 2007) it owns Trevanion Culverhouse in Wadebridge, Castle an Dinas near St. Columb, Sancreed Beacon in West Penwith and Treffry Viaduct near Luxulyan. In addition, on behalf of English Heritage, it manages Dupath Well near Callington, the Hurlers Stone Circles at Minions, Tregiffian Burial Chamber in West Penwith, St Breock Downs Monolith (Men Gurta) near Wadebridge, King Doniert’s Stones near Minions, Trethevy Quoit at Darite and Carn Euny Iron Age Village in West Penwith. I am at a loss to understand why that particular brand of Cornish Nationalist that defaces English Heritage signs does not instead join Cornwall Heritage Trust and help them to acquire and care for all English Heritage sites in Cornwall - and care for the many other uncared-for sites. Perhaps the Trust's patronage by the Duke of Cornwall (the English Prince of Wales) offends them. Or perhaps their ends are exclusively political. | |
| Cornwall Heritage Trust Website |
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CORNISH ANCIENT SITES PROTECTION NETWORK
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Until I did an antiquities walk from Lamorna in July 2007 I had never heard of the Cornish Ancient Sites Protection Network - in Cornish Roesweyth Gwith Hen Leow Kernewek. Then at the Merry Maidens Stone Circle I found a handsome polished granite tablet recording their interest in the site. It seems the Network was founded as a charity in 2000 to bring together the many bodies responsible (in some cases, irresponsible) for the care of Cornwall's vast number of ancient sites. CASPN was formed after a number of vandal attacks on prominent ancient sites. A large number of fairly disparate bodies are involved, amongst them National Trust, Cornwall County Council’s Historic Environment Service, Cornwall Archaeological Society, English Heritage, English Nature, Cornwall Wildlife Trust, Cornwall Heritage Trust, Penwith District Council, Penwith Access and Rights of Way, Penlee Gallery and Museum, Madron Community Forum, Zennor Parish Council, Cornish Earth Mysteries Group, Pagan Federation, Pagan Moot, Meyn Mamvro and the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids. The main focus seems to be the West Penwith area, as you might expect with its abundance of ancient sites. I haven't yet seen their tablets elsewhere but I hope to; I applaud their efforts. |
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Information gleaned from CASPN's website |
Open Access - the Countryside Agency 'Right to Roam' website
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I have found the
Countryside Agency's Open Access website an immense help in my Cornwall
moorland walking, not just on Bodmin Moor but also in West Penwith.
The recently introduced 'Right to Roam' legislation - long agitated for
by the Ramblers Association, and initially opposed by many landowners -
has resulted in vast areas of land all over England, Scotland, Wales and
Cornwall being opened up to the general public. Essentially these
rights are for walkers only - suits me.
To get an overview of access to the countryside, go to the Countryside Access website. To access the maps, go to the Open Access page. If you already know the specific location that you want to check on, go to the Search page. You will first need to check that the location you want is shown on the appropriate Ordnance Survey Explorer map. Click 'next' and then enter and search for your location. Maps show restrictions and can be zoomed up to very large scale. Access land is shown yellow. A word or two of warning. I soon discovered that 'open access' may not be as straightforward as that. I have encountered barbed wire fences, locked gates and even one gate on Bodmin Moor, leading to access land, that has a 'no walkers' sign on it. And then, in West Penwith, where moorland is lower, I have found impenetrable furze and bramble. So don't expect it to be easy. |
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Many of the sites on this page are on Open Access land |
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| You will also find quite a lot of references to West Penwith antiquities on my Penwith Round trail page |
| I know Carn Euny and Chysauster iron age villages well but had no idea that there was another with substantial remains in West Penwith. It was by pure chance, during a walk from Carn Galver car park - visiting the Nine Maidens and looking for boundary stones - that I came across Bodrifty. Within a badly degraded embanked enclosure are the remains of eight iron age roundhouses. Sadly the 1950s excavation did a lot of damage but the site, on a gently sloping hillside just north of Bodrifty Farm, is well worth seeing. The site was occupied in the Bronze Age but what you see is what remains of occupation from 600BC to around 43AD. If you follow the yellow markers you will find a good roundhouse reconstruction, done by Bodrifty Farm owner Fred Mustill. |
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No one even knew this
was there until 1878 when Cornish antiquarian W C Borlase discovered it
under mining spoil. There are probably several similar barrows still
hidden under the rubble elsewhere along here. The barrow was in use
during both neolithic and bronze ages and includes an entrance grave, a
cairn, several individual burial cists and a number of ritual pits.
What you see is very striking: a central oval structure, 35
feet across with walls up to 10 feet high; all around this is a passage
six feet wide with outside walls forming a 'collar' of the same height.
The location of Bollowal Barrow is superb, just back from a 300 foot cliff with views north to Cape Cornwall and the Brisons rocks, south to Land's End and the Longships Lighthouse. On a clear day you can see the Scillies more than 30 miles away. You can drive to the site by taking the road from St. Just signed to Cape Cornwall for half-a-mile and then turning left on Carn Gluze Road for three-quarters of a mile. If you are fit, however, it is far more enjoyable to climb the steep coast path from the NT car park at Cape Cornwall. For refreshments close by you can't beat the egg and bacon baps at Cape Cornwall Golf Club, England's most southerly, most westerly and most wind blown course. |
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Barrow seen on a Cape Cornwall to Sennen walk |
Boscawen-un Stone Circle and Trelew Longstone
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In July 2006 I did a figure-of-eight walk from St. Buryan in West Penwith, partly to find several new antiquities. On both loops I found Cornish crosses, on the northern loop I sought out Boscawen-un Stone Circle and nearby Trelew Longstone. Boscawen-un is a circle of 19 stones, a 20th at its centre, a little to the west of Boscawenoon Farm. There is room for about 6 cars to park on the A30, about 2 miles west of the St. Buryan turn; a small wooden sign points towards the circle. I was back again in March 2008 while walking the Penwith Round. The Longstone, eight feet high, stands near the edge of a field of maize and is visible from a lane leading to Trelew Farm from the south-east. If not walking, I imagine you can probably ask at Trelew Farm for permission to park and to visit the longstone. |
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| I encountered Caer Bran for the first time in March 2008 when walking the Penwith Round. I really should have been there before, located as it is halfway between Sancreed Beacon and Carn Euny. However, the Ordnance Survy map gives the site little significance, and there is little about it on the web, so I hadn't previously given it a thought. I was glad I did so on this occasion. Apparently the site was largely furze covered but PAROW, the Penwith Access and Rights of Way group, has done some clearance recently though much more needs to be done. To my mind, the place is an oddity, an iron age hill fort with - according to a Cornwall Archaeological Unit 1990s survey - several bronze age ring cairns inside its 240 foot diameter outer rampart. What I saw seemed shaped more like longhouses! The name could mean Crow's Castle or it could take its name from nearby Brane (Bos Vran - the House of Bran). Or could it be anything to do with the Rialobran commemorated on Men Scryfa near Men-an-Tol and the Nine Maidens circle? I feel this is a site that might benefit from the attentions of Time Team and perhaps from being put in the care of the Cornwall Heritage Trust, which has done such a good job elsewhere. Anyway, it's a spot well worth visiting if you are in the area. There are long views though less than those from nearby Sancreed Beacon. |  |
| Entrance on a lane from Grumbla Common, opposite Caer Bran farm |
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Take a look at the
large scale Ordnance Survey Explorer series map of West Penwith - Cornwall's
sparsely populated far western extremity - and you will see the landscape
littered with the symbols for prehistoric sites. The words in gothic
script tell you just how heavily populated these parts were 2000 years
ago - settlement, hut circle, farmstead, homestead, tumulus, cairn, quoit.
On a bright sunny day in early October 2004, I took myself off to West
Penwith to investigate several of these ancient sites - Carn Euny, Chun
Castle Chysauster, and Chapel
Carn Brea. Most interesting of all these are the two hillside
iron age villages, Chysauster and Carn Euny.
Carn Euny was only discovered by 19th century tin miners. Dating from around 500BC to 500 AD, it consists of early round houses and later more sophisticated courtyard houses. What looks like an extremely elaborate house turns out to be the ruin of a tin miners cottage. The site has been less excavated than Chysauster and retains great charm. Most impressive feature is an enormous and fully excavated 'fogou', maybe an underground storage chamber. It is possible to drive almost to the site but much more enjoyable to park below Chapel Carn Brea and walk a mile, passing an old clay pit and St. Euny's Well, one of those wells where people tie strips of cloth in the trees, in prayer for the sick or remembrance of the dead. |
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Image of Carn Euny fogou |
Carnyorth Common, south of Trewallard in West Penwith
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In early July 2006
I headed for West Penwith in search of more antiquities. After spending
some time at Sancreed, I parked at Geevor
Mine in Trewellard - not far from St. Just
and Cape Cornwall - where I
returned later to make a report on the museum, and enjoyed a pleasant and
easy four or five mile walk. I found more than I bargained for -
at Sancreed, Cornish crosses, a holy well and a bronze age barrow;
on and around Carnyorth Common, boundary stones, a line of holed stones,
a stone circle, an abandoned farmstead and a relatively contemporary farm
with ancient field walls. I have included images of some of these
below. I have to confess that I failed to find the stone circle first
time and had to drive up rutted tracks later to find it from a different
direction! I was back later on foot, walking the Penwith
Round. On the way I drove through Tregeseal village which itself
was quite a delight, its colourful cottages and gardens nicely tucked away
from the St. Ives - St. Just road
Images below: Tregeseal Stone Circle Kenidjack Holed Stones |
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Tregeseal Stone Circle and Kenidjack Holed Stones
| Sadly this circle of around twenty stones, having been restored, is rapidly being engulfed again in bracken. It had turned quite dark and drizzly by the time I got here, so images are a bit dull, too. Perhaps I shall get better ones on another occasion. |
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| When I walked here with my sister Mary in March 2008, on my first stage of the Penwith Round, I was sufficiently puzzled by what OS102 clearly shows as Castallack Round that I returned a few days later to take another closer look. The Penwith Round route instructions are, I think, misleading, suggesting you turn right (north) on a grassy path. There is no grassy path and the entrance is before the track become a path and just before a wooden gate. Before I returned, I checked the usual sources (The Modern Antiquarian and Megalithic Portal) and found nothing useful. What I found was a large level field, a little higher than the land to its north, surrounded by a massive hexagonal wall. The image on the right shows what may have been the entrance. The site was definitely made by early man, presumably for occupation since the site was levelled. The name is confirmation, the Cornish Castallek meaning 'fortified' according to Craig Weatherhill. The wall, much degraded, stands about seven feet high in places and as much as six feet thick. Since there is supposed to be a Bronze Age hut circle in one corner - I couldn't find it - perhaps the site is of that period. What it certainly isn't is a conventional Cornish round; you only have to look at Piran or Pencarrow Rounds to see the total difference. A puzzling and fascinating site. |  |
| Signed path from Castallack Farm. Site is on R before wooden gate. |
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Chapel Carn Brea Bronze Age Tomb
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Even if you have no
interest in antiquities, this is a spot that is well worth visiting for
its location and views. Chapel Carn Brea - not to be confused with
Carn
Brea at Camborne/Redruth, is Cornwall's most westerly hill. Although
rising only to 650 feet, the panorama is quite stupendous. Below
you spreads a patchwork of small fields, the settlement of St.
Just, and Land's End and both
coasts. You may see, as I did, planes flying into tiny Land's End
airfield. To the southeast you can see Lizard
Point, 21 miles away; to the west you can see Longships Lighthouse
off Land's End; to the southwest you may see the Scilly
Isles, some 31 miles distant.
If you are interested in antiquities and history, what you will find at the very top of the hill is a Bronze Age chambered cairn, a vast burial mound covered with rocks. It is very badly disturbed and degraded; a medieval hermitage was built here, using stones from the cairn and, in the second world war, a radar station was built on it. Fairly nearby is another odd feature, close by a rocky tor, which none of the authorities I have consulted mention but which I think is an earlier neolithic long barrow. There is also a charred area where local pagans burn midsummer bonfires. The hill is fairly steep but easy to climb. There is a car park at its foot from which you can also walk to Carn Euny iron age village by way of St. Euny's Well. |
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Where Carn Euny has only been partially excavated, Chysauster (its name is actually 'Chy Sylvestra', meaning the houses in the wood) has been more fully excavated since its discovery in around 1860, much the same time as Carn Euny. Unlike earlier Carn Euny, Chysauster dates from around the birth of Christ and was occupied during the Roman period. Being later, it is more sophisticated, consisting of nine courtyard houses, mostly fairly fully excavated. As you can see from the photograph, its substantial walls rise to around eight feet. The houses are known as 'courtyard houses' because the four or five rooms, backed by massive stone walls, surround an open courtyard. They are entered by a long entrance passage, believed to have been gated, giving a good degree of privacy. In the centre of the main room, a stone in the floor has a hole where a timber would have supported a thatched roof. In evidence are hearths, corn-grinding stones and covered sewers. Each of the houses appears to have had its own terraced garden. The fogou, unlike that at Carn Euny, is in a ruinous state and is not open. The site is in the care of English Heritage so there is a small entrance fee. The walk from the car park to the site is a gentle climb of about quarter of a mile. There is a small shop in the reception hut but no refreshments. |
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| Chun Castle and the nearby Chun Quoit neolithic burial chamber are among Cornwall's least accessible ancient monuments. Footpaths to the site are not signed and you will need to find Trehyllys Farm (please ask the farmer's permission to park) near Great Bosullow, a mile off the Penzance to Morvah road. It is worth it; the ragged ruins of Chun Castle suggest the former size of this iron age fort. Almost 200 feet in diameter, its tumbled walls must have been six feet thick - and in 1951 Jacquetta Hawkes recorded that, in living memory, its walls had stood twelve feet high. She believed it to have been connected with the tin trade. While you will need to use considerable imagination, this is an impressively dominant site, which must have been much like an Irish rath and similar to Staigue Fort in Ireland's County Kerry. Use OS Explorer Sheet 102, whether coming by car or in the course of a hike. You could include a visit to nearby Men-an-Tol stones. |
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Lamorna - the area to the west of the village
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Ever since December 2003, when my sister Mary and I did a round walk from Lamorna that included coast, Boskenna Cross and the Merry Maidens, I had been meaning to return to find the many other antiquities in the area. At last, in July 2007, I did it. After an early lunch at the Lamorna Wink Inn I left my car in their car park (with permission) and set out up the hill opposite to a path that took me west past three farms - Tregurnow, Rosemodress and Tregiffian - then north-west to Boscawen Ros Farm, the original home of the Falmouth's of Tregothnan. There I found my first standing stone in the middle of a field. Continuing north-west I found Boskenna Cross on the main road, then on up a lane to Moorcroft Cross. From there by a path south-west from Choone Farm for Goon Rith standing stone. On to the main road for Tregiffian Long Barrow (the cup marked stone is a concrete copy of the original in Royal Cornwall Museum), then another cross, the Pipers standing stones and Merry Maidens stone circle, Cornwall's most complete with 19 regularly placed stones. Oddly, you cannot see one Piper from the other and you can see the Merry Maidens from neither, despite proximity. Yet you can see the Maidens from Goon Rith standing stone. Altogether around 6 miles and very enjoyable. |
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Images of Moorcroft Cross and Tregiffian Long Barrow |
Moorcroft Cornish Cross and Tregiffian Neolithic Long Barrow
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| Located just off the road from Penzance and Madron to Morvah, Lanyon Quoit, along with Trethevy Quoit, is just about Cornwall's most accessible antiquity. A late neolithic portal dolmen or chambered tomb, it was brought down in a great storm in 1815. When re-erected in 1824 one upright was broken so now it is like a tripod stool. Before the storm it was apparently possible for a horse rider to pass beneath the 13 ton capstone. Lanyon Quoit, in the care of the National Trust, is only a few yards from the road and approached by a stile. Park in the small lay-by just round the corner, north of the stile. |
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Maen Castle - Cliff Castle near Land's End
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When I was last here - in September 2005 - I could never have guessed that Maen Castle was perhaps the most impressive cliff castle in Cornwall, Treryn Dinas notwithstanding. Then the whole site, except the entrance, was covered in bracken and furze and, had I not been looking for the wreck of the RMS Mulheim in Castle Zawn, I would never even have spotted the tiny National Trust sign. On this occasion, in April 2008, I was amazed to discover that the National Trust had cleared the site, exposing what seems to be four concentric rings of wall. The main stone-built wall, through which you enter, must have been absolutely massive; its six to eight foot width suggests a considerable height. Clearly there has been a great deal of cliff erosion - this is probably the most storm-swept part of the Cornish coast - and I guess this must have been a gigantic fort in its day. It is believed that it was constructed in around 500 BC and remained in occupation for almost 1000 years. Access along the coast path is fairly easy. It is about halfway between Sennen Cove and Land's End. There is an easy 200 foot climb from Sennen Cove; from Land's End it is more or less level walking. The best place to eat nearby is Sennen Cove where, at one end of the front is the relatively expensive The Beach café, at the other end is a café with inexpensive breakfast type food. |
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Marked on OS Explorer sheet 102 |
| Off the narrow road from Morvah to Penzance is one of Cornwall's most fascinating ancient monuments, Men-an-Tol. Park opposite the small art gallery at Bosullow and walk up a well-made farm track to find the site. Two rather phallic uprights stand either side of an upright circular stone with a large hole through it. It is this 'stone with a hole' that gives the site its name. Formerly part of a burial chamber, the present upright stones stand either side of the circular stone which was the entrance to the grave. The stones are said to have curative rather than fertility properties. Passing through the hole will cure a child of tuberculosis or rickets, an adult of rheumatism. On the way along the lane, elaborate stone walls enclose small fields, close to a ruined farmstead and a recently abandoned one. Further up the lane, on the way to the Nine Maidens, Men Scryfa, an inscribed stone, stands in a field on the left. Follow the road towards Penzance to encounter other ancient sites - Lanyon Quoit just a mile on, Madron Chapel and Wishing Well another 1½ miles. The well is one of those where people tie strips of cloth in the trees, in prayer for the sick or in memory of the dead. |
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Men
Scryfa with Carn Galver behind
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Nine Maidens Stone Circle in West Penwith
| Standing high on gorse and heather moorland in West Penwith, not far from Men-an-Tol, Nine Maidens stone circle must be one of those, like the Rollright Stones in the Cotswolds, where you cannot count the stones. Look at Megalithic Portal or the Modern Antiquarian and you will find many differing reports of the number of stones there were and are here. At its restoration in 2004, three were said to have been re-erected to add to the existing six. In September 2006 Jane and I counted eleven. If Nine Maidens followed the same prectice as other West Penwith circles, there would originally have been nineteen stones. |
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In Cornwall the word
is 'fogou' - a corruption of ogo, a cave - in Scotland it is an 'earth
house', in France a 'souterrain'. Whichever word you choose, no one
has any idea what the purpose of such an underground structure was.
Guesses include grain store and defensive retreat. It is almost certain
that they were not burial sites.
I managed to miss both Pendeen Vau and Boscaswell when walking in mid-October 2007 but found both repeating the walk with my sister Mary in late October. Pendeen Vau fogou is in the farmyard of Pendeen Manor Farm - so ask permission and be prepared to ease your way past the cows and to wade through slurry. It is worth it as you can negotiate the two main chambers easily; the second also has a small entrance. A rough subsidiary chamber has a very low opening and I did not try to enter it. If you want to enter it, someone has helpfully put a board in place that you can crawl along. But beware, it is very muddy and messy so if you do plan to go in, do be suitably clothed. |
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More on fogous |
| There are said to be eleven fogous in Cornwall, all in West Penwith or on the Lizard Peninsula, all dating from the late Iron Age. The most easily accessible one I know is that at Carn Euny, open all year and picured below left. There is another at Chysauster nearby but English Heritage does not allow access to it. Close to Pendeen Vau fogou is another at Boscaswell, below right. This is now owned by the National Trust. At present (November 2006) it is blocked but I imagine it will be reopened. Some say that the best of all is Halligye Fogou on the Trelowarren estate on the Lizard. It is in the care of English Heritage and is open from April to October. I haven't seen it yet. |
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| I had no idea this existed until I spotted a car park, just a little west of Sancreed church. Wondering what it was for, I investigated and an information board told me that high on the hill were bronze age remains. The site is rather over-run with heather and bracken so it is difficult to know exactly what you are seeing. There appeared to me to be just one massive barrow with two or three possible burial chambers exposed on top. Quite an oddity. Elsewhere is said to be remains of a bronze age hut but I couldn't find it. Views are great from up here, including St. Michael's Mount, Lizard Point and Ding Dong mine. |
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Tregiffian Vean Chambered Cairn near Land's End
| The fact that there is a better known Tregiffian neolithic long barrow close to the Merry Maidens in the Lamorna area confused me for a long while. So in April 2008, when doing a walk from Land's End, I looked at the OS map, saw that 'chambered cairn' was shown between Higher Tregiffian and Tregiffian farms, and decided to include it in my walk. It was easy to find, in a long field through which a path runs between the farms and, despite its small size, visible from quite a distance. When I got to it, my first thought was that this was no chambered cairn at all but just a heap of stones that a farmer had piled in a field. However, when I got home and looked it up on the web I found a posting by Pure Joy on The Modern Antiquarian , quoting Craig Weatherhill's book Belerion, Ancient Sites of Land's End as follows: "This barrow has suffered dreadfully and it is only a shadow of the fine and unusual monument excavated by W.C.Borlase in 1878. It was then a kerbed mound 6.4m in diameter, containing a rather odd-shaped chamber. This was 2.4m long, 0.9m wide and just 0.5m high, but its inner end opened out to a width of 1.2m and a height of 1.0m. Like the tomb at Tregeseal the entrance was blocked by a single slab. The roof of the chamber consisted of three slabs and the tomb contained ashes and an urn". Sad that an important ancient monument - it is of the Scillonian type - should have been allowed to be so badly damaged. |  |
| By car, you can probably ask permission to park at Higher Tregiffian |
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This must be the largest of Cornwall's cliff castles. Depending on who you believe, there are either three of four lines of ramparts. I make it three. A massive landward rampart (right on the coast path) as much as twenty feet high, an inner double bank and ditch, and a small seaward rempart, approached by a 'bridge', just before the incredibly rocky headland. There are said to be remains of two hut circles beyond this seaward defence. I find this a puzzling place. Why should anyone who could build the vast outer defences risk being trapped between their tiny final rampart and this rocky headland, with no way to escape. Is it possible that 2000 years have seen massive erosion here, changing the headland beyond recognition. Whatever the reason, it is a most impressive place. It is worth climbing the rocky headland to find the famous Logan Rock - I couldn't make it in the high winds of late March 2008. The National Trust has made a fair job of clearing the site and there is an easy level path from Treen village. For once I disagree with Craig Weatherhill's thoughts on place names. Treen may not mean 'the farm by the fort', it more likely means 'the farm by the (bank and) ditch'. But I do agree that the cliff castle's name is now derived from the village name - 'the fort by Treen'. |
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| Believed to be remains of Neolithic burials, where the mound has weathered away, these quoits are known elsewhere as Cromlechs or Dolmens. Cornwall's best known are Lanyon Quoit in West Penwith and Trethevy Quoit on Bodmin Moor. This is probably just because they are easily accessible by car. Zennor and Mulfra Quiots, like their West Penwith companion Chun Quoit, are accessible only to those to like to walk the hills. My own view is that, of all five, Zennor is the finest - and the most unusual for having several standing stones to its front. From Zennor Quoit you can see the north coast, from Mulfra you can see the south coast and St. Michael's Mount. |
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East Moor and Fox Tor on Bodmin Moor
| In early April 2006, having finished walking Mark Camp's fascinating Copper Trail, I went back to Five Lanes to investigate an area that I had looked at briefly on the trail and that had attracted me when studying the Ordnance Survey map. This lies just off the Copper Trail, to the south of Five Lanes and the A30 highway. In a fairly complex walk I took a lane through Tregirls and up onto the moor at Eastmoorgate, having checked first that East Moor is an unrestricted open access area. Once on the moor I headed up 1100 foot Fox Tor - great views in all directions - where there are traces of a boundary bank and the outlines of former long houses. Then westwards to find what had been a massive boundary bank and on southeast up another hill for a stone row and a couple of degraded cairns. South then for the Greymare Rock (not really an antiquity) and hut circles on Carey Tor. Finally northeast to find the Nine Stones circle. My one failure was that I could not find a line of Altarnun parish boundary stones, though I had previously found one near Clitters on a Copper Trail walk. A great walk and fascinating, if mostly rudimentary remains. Afterwards I enjoyed another great, and good value, beef and onion baguette at the King's Head at Five Lanes. |
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| On Ordnance Survey Explorer sheet 109. |
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Arthurian location that you cannot get to in a car. However, paths
lead east to it from St. Breward Church
for a little over a mile to Penwood House, then sharply north-east for
another mile or so. You could shorten the walk by parking near Penwood
House.
What you find, when you get to the top of King Arthur’s Downs, is what may be a prehistoric rectangular banked enclosure, around six feet high and some 160 feet by 65 feet. Inside is lined with apparently random stones, upright, angled or lying flat. A ditch once followed inside the rectangle, its course is marked by mare’s tail grass. Romantics would have us believe that the enclosure was once roofed but its sheer size makes that unlikely. However, the same sheer size suggests that it must have been a place of some importance. It still feels like a special place, perhaps because of its location. Despite knowing that farms and villages are not far away, you feel total isolation on the high moorland, your views of the higher land of Garrow Tor and Rough Tor only heightening the feeling of isolation. Yet, look to the east and you will see isolated standing stones that may have marked a prehistoric track over the moor. |
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| Ordnance Survey Explorer sheet 109, grid reference SX 130777 |
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In a nicely maintained
granite-walled enclosure, on the minor road between Doublebois and Minions,
are a couple of granite standing stones, with handy car parking by the
site. It is unclear whether they were always two or whether they
are one broken in two. You will find it impossible to read the inscription
carved in the granite but a plaque nearby carries the information: 'King
Doniert's Stone. Men Myghtern Doniert. These two granite cross
bases (if they are indeed separate) are decorated in the late Ninth Century
style and probably date from that time. The shorter stone carries a Latin
inscription "Doniert Progant Pro Anima", saying "Doniert ordered [this
cross] for [the good of] his soul". Doniert was probably Durngarth,
King of Cornwall who was drowned in AD875. The two stones have rectangular
sockets on their top and probably carried wooden crosses'. Durngarth
apparently drowned in the River Fowey near Draynes Bridge (a mile west),
possibly at scenic Golitha Falls, reviewed
on my 'Coast and Country' page.
Other sites to visit around Minions include Trethevy Quoit, the Hurlers and Pipers stones and Stowe's Hill. It is also well worth following a quiet signposted footpath along the old mineral tramway south towards the village of Crow's Nest to find the gaunt ruins of South Caradon Mine and the pleasant Crow's Nest Inn, where I have enjoyed many a hot baguette. |
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On OS109. Site in the care of Cornwall Heritage Trust |
The Hurlers and Pipers Standing Stones
| There is a large complex of standing stones at Minions on Bodmin Moor. The Pipers are two tall stones. The Hurlers are three stone circles, one recumbent. Its two standing circles are of 100 and 140 feet in diameter. Legend has it that the Hurlers were playing a game somewhat similar to baseball. They made the mistake of playing on a Sunday and were turned to stone for their sins. The Pipers, providing the musical accompaniment, suffered the same fate. It is said you can only count the stones by placing a loaf on each then collecting and carefully counting them. Unfortunately, the devil sometimes likes to steal a loaf or two so counting can be more than a little difficult. The same sort of tale is told of the Rollright Stones in the Cotswolds and of others in England. |
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Stannon and Fernacre Stone Circles
| On a cold sunny day in late January 2008 I set off to find three stone circles on Bodmin Moor - Stannon, Fernacre and Louden. Stannon is to the south of the china clay pit and I was able to park withn 100 yards. Frome there I headed south-west for Louden Hill circle. If it did once exist, it certainly isn't identifiable now. So I headed for Fernacre circle, clearly visible from almost a mile. On the way I encountered numerous cairns and standing stones and two cists, the Steping Hill one visible from a distance. Then, sfter climbing Roughtor and exploring the settlement on the hill's south-west side, I headed off to Louden Hill for the logan stone. From Louden Hill, if you look across to the nearest hill westwards, you might think you see quoits and standing stones but the hill is a Stannon Pit spoil heap and they have been placed there for fun. But what I did find, at the western base of Loden Hill, close to the Stannon Pit boundary fence, was an impressive (I assume) hut circle, its walls two or three feet high and grass covered. |
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The most concentrated group of interest on Bodmin Moor is on the south-eastern edge of the moor near the village of Minions. A short walk from the village will bring you to The Hurlers and Pipers, ancient standing stones. Legend has it that the three stone circles of the Hurlers are teams of sportsmen, turned to stone for playing hurling on a Sunday; the nearby two Pipers standing stones provided the musical accompaniment. A longer walk to the north (about three miles round walk) leads to a fascinating area at Stowe's Hill. Here, below the summit, is Daniel Gumb’s Cave where a simple stone-worker, self taught as a mathematician, carved a Euclid theorem on a rock. Climb to the top of the hill, around 1300 feet above sea level, one of the moor's highest points, and you will find the amazing Cheesewring, a natural granite outcrop, precariously poised above a quarry. There is also a stone-wall pound believed to date from prehistoric times. Views over the moor are glorious; to the north you are looking to the high tors of Brown Willy and Rough Tor, to the south you can see the sea as far as Dodman Point. When you descend Stowe’s Hill, if you do so eastwards you can return along a former mineral tramway to Minions. Another mioneral tramway leaves Minions heading south for Crow's Nest. |
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| I sought out Cornwall's largest - and most unusual - stone circle during a walk in September 2006 that took in King Arthur's Hall, Garrow Tor and Hawk's Tor. Stripple Stones is most unusual because it is Cornwall's only stone circle standing within a henge (circular bank and ditch). The henge is about 225 feet in diameter but now very shallow and degraded. No one agrees about how many standing stones there originally were in the circle. Estimates vary from 15 to 28. Only four stand now and the central longstone lies flat. It would be good to see the site cleared and the lost stones re-erected - if they could all be found. Location is on the lower southern slopes of Hawk's Tor. |
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Trevethy Quoit is
the best example in Cornwall - and one of the best that you will find anywhere
- of what the archaeologists describe as a neolithic portal dolmen, a massive
4000 year old burial chamber of stone construction that would once have
been covered in earth. Quoit is the Cornish word for this kind of
monument. Seven vast slabs of Trethevy Quoit survive of which one
has fallen into the tomb, causing the great capstone (it weighs around
ten tons) to slope at an angle that adds character, as does the neat hole
drilled through one corner - one suspects that this may have been done
in Victorian times in order to put the slab back on top after it had fallen.
Another oddity is that the upright 'closure' stone has a bottom corner
cut away, apparently in order to allow the chamber to be entered.
When looking for Trethevy Quoit, you will find it poorly signed.
When you make the designated turn in Darite village, you will then need
to make an immediate unsigned right to find it.
There are several other ancient sites nearby worth visiting: the Hurlers stone circles and Pipers standing stones just north of Minions and King Doniert's Stones two miles south-west of the same village. Nor should you miss the wooded River Fowey at Golitha Falls about four miles south-west of Minions, a delightful spot with beech woods and impressive waterfalls. |
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The Arthur Stone at Slaughterbridge, the legendary Camlann
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I first saw the famous
Arthur Stone in the 1990s and had failed to get a photo of it. I
had been meaning to go back but had been a little put off by the idea of
the 'visitor attraction' Arthurian Centre now on the site. At last,
in August 2007, I did return on a day sunny enough to get a photo of sorts,
not easy in its heavily wooded valley site.
The stone, a memorial stone, probably of the early 6th century, may once have stood on a mound above the River Camel only to be cast down to its riverside position after the Saxons defeated the Cornish here in AD823. Its inscription reads LATINI IC IACIT FILIUS MA[…]RI but what makes it unusual is that an Ogham inscription, now illegible, also contains the name Latini. Nothing about Arthur here; the association comes from the legend that Slaughterbridge was Camlann, the site of Arthur's death at the hands of Mordred, somehere around AD540. The Arthurian Centre contains a romanticised exhibition and video but does bring together most of the Arthurian literature. On the way from there to the stone I was fascinated by the archaeological dig of Melorn village, once part of the Worthyvale estate (the Tudor house still stands) and by the restoration of Lady Falmouth's Garden by the river. The stone and the archaeology make a £3 visit well worthwhile. |
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Images of the Melorn dig and of Lady Falmouth's Garden |
| I strongly recommend looking at two websites for much more detailed information. Joe Parsons' (could it have been his ancestors who farmed Lord Falmouth's estate here in the early 18th century?) excellent and highly detailed Arthur-Online site; and archaeologist Nick Hanks' own informative site about his digs of Melorn village and Lady Falmouth's Garden. |
More Images from the Arthur Stone site at Slaughterbridge
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Carn Brea - the hill overlooking Camborne and Redruth
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While I greatly enjoyed my November 2006 exploration of Carn Brea - while the weather held - I was disappointed by the visible archaeoloogy. An important neolithic settlement of the early 4th millennium BC had an 8 acre enclosure surrounded by an 11 acre enclosure, occupied by a hundred or so people. Later, iron age occupants streamed for minerals and traded as far as Kent. In medieval times stone was quarried and the Bassetts hunted from their 'castle' hunting lodge, Carn Brea Castle. The hill is much overgrown with furze, brambles and bracken and all I could find was one standing stone and two hut circles. Perhaps a serious heath fire might expose what the experts found in the 1970s. Although, when visiting Carn Brea, which I have done many times, I prefer to walk, making a variation to the Great Flat Lode Trail, you can drive to the top of the hill. A track leads up from Carnkie village and you park not far from Carn Brea Castle. Carn Brea should not be confused with Chapel Carn Brea, with its vast cairn, which is nor far from St. Just-in-Penwith. |
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Carwynnen Quoit - or the Giant's Quoit
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Carwynnen Quoit, also known as the Giant's Quoit, is a collapsed neolithic burial chamber. To look at it now you might wonder if it were not just a heap of rocks but there is an image of it standing in The Modern Antiquarian. Apparently it was re-erected in the mid 20th century, only to collapse again in 1983. It seems there may be moves afoot to re-erect it again. Not easy to find, you need to get to the tiny settlement of Carwynnen, take the hill up towards Troon and scramble over the hedge on the left just after the campsite. |
Castle-an-Dinas near St. Columb Major
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The largest and most
easily accessible iron age hill fort in Cornwall, not to be confused
with one of the same name in West
Penwith, Castle-an-Dinas stands on a 700 foot hilltop to the south-east
of St. Columb Major. There are two
rings of banks and ditches, the outer perimeter a full half mile, the area
around 10 acres.
4000 years ago all that stood here were two bronze age barrows, still just discernable. Over 2000 years ago, when the fort was constructed, it would have been a hive of activity. In 1646, in the Civil Wars, it saw Hopton's royalist forces camping overnight. Fifty years ago it was the site of a major wulfram (tungsten) mine and an aerial ropeway ran from the ramparts to the works buildings that still stand by the car park. Now it is just populated by sheep and goats, who probably pay no attention at all to the great panoramas - a toposcope stands by a barrow. A lot of stories surround this isolated spot. Reputedly it was the site of King Arthur's hunting lodge and the place where Cador, King of Cornwall and husband of Arthur's mother Igerne, died. It is said that ghostly armies have been seen in the skies above the fort. Both murders and executions have taken place here. Standing on the ramparts, and enjoying the long views, it is hard to imagine any of these events. |
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Off un-numbered road, 2 miles E of junction of A39 and A3059 |
Castle Dore, King Mark's Hillfort
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At the very end of
a successful March 2005 day's walking and research in the general area
of Fowey, I drove back up the Fowey-Lostwithiel
road and parked in a handy pull-in by Castle Dore Farm and walked up to
Castle Dore itself. The sun was rapidly sinking and I was only just
in time to get a heavily shadowed photo.
Originally this was a minor iron age hill fort, apparently occupied by a small village during the last three centuries BC. Much as I enjoy hill forts, this was not my interest. What I had come for was the claimed site of the Palace of Marcus Cunomorus, King Mark of Cornwall, during the first half of the 6th century. The palace was apparently a wooden hall. The site has been excavated but I have been unable to unearth any reports of the archaeology on the web and it is more likely that Lantyan Farm was the real site. Mark appears to have been of Welsh origin, son of King Meirion, and himself to have ruled first Cornwall and later Brittany. In legend he is usually described as 'The Evil King Mark' for his treatment of his wife and son. He appears in Arthurian legend as an enemy defeated by the Knights of the Round Table. Two miles down the road to Fowey is the Tristan Stone, recording the death of the Tristan of 'Tristan and Isolde' fame, nephew of King Mark and lover of Isolde or Yseult. |
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Castle Killibury - a putative Arthurian site
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Although Castle Killibury is only a couple of miles from our home in Wadebridge, I only got round to taking a look in January 2007, using it as the destination of a walk up the Allen Valley. The interest in Castle Killibury (also known as Kelly Rounds) stems from its putative Arthurian connection. The Welsh Mabinogion refers to "Arthur as chief prince in Celliwig in Cerniw". Cerniw (or Kernow) is Cornwall and Killibury (an anglicisation) is one of several camdidates for Celliwig. The site was occupied during both bronze age and iron age and there is some evidence of occupation (but not re-fortification) in Arthur's time. Sadly, half the site is now farm buildings and banks and ditches are overgrown by thorn bushes. In form it is bivallate, 200 yards in diameter and had a square annexe on its west side, now ploughed out. So, unless you are a convinced Arthurian, it is scarcely worth seeing. Which brings me to one of my pet gripes about a certain type of Cornish nationalist. Elsewhere I have suggested that, instead of defacing English Heriitage signs, they should join Cornwall Heritage Trust to help them care for our historic sites. It would be great if their nationalism should encourage them to do something about caring for sites like Castle Killibury and Helsbury Castle, sadly neglected compared with similar English sites. |
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On OS Explorer sheet 106 at SX 018736, due E of Three Hole Cross |
| I revisited Killibury in February 2008. To my delight, some of the site had been cleared and banks (but not ditches) were much more visible. The low-profiled site is very difficult to photograph but I hope the image above is better than last year's. While there I chatted to Gordon, a member of Tamar Dowsers, who was doing a recce prior to the group visiting. |
| I encountered Long Cross inscribed stone - presumably an early Christian period memorial stone - on a round walk from Chapel Amble that took in St. Endellion church and the old manor of Roscarrock. At present I have been able to find out nothing about the stone but was entertained by its proximity to two later direction signs, one of the twentieth century, the other much older. The older has an upright with a flat square stone on top, each side naming a different destination; it is pictured behind the inscribed stone. |
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When we visited the
Pencarrowestate
for the snowdrops in February 2004, for the first time we drove in on the
main drive. We were amazed to find that the road snaked through ancient
earth works, first through an iron age farmstead enclosure, its banks still
ten feet high, its outer ditch some four feet deep. Then followed
a series of long outer curving banks, looking to us like a possible causewayed
camp. All this in the most beautiful beech woodland imaginable.
Later we visited
Blisland village and
lunched at St. Breward's excellent Old Inn.
January 2008 - I understand that a major project is to be undertaken to clear obscuring growth from around the fortified farmstead and from around the other earthwoks between the farmstead and the house. I look forward to seeing the results of the work. |
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Penhallam - ruins of a very early Moated Manor House
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This is both a remarkable
and a confusing place. Start with confusing. Managers English
Heritage call it Penhallam, but a farm a mile away is called Penhallym.
Cornwall's
Archaeological Heritage calls it Berry Court while the house next to
the site is called Bury Court. And, just to add to the confusion,
if you use the 1997 OS explorer map you will end up at Penhallym.
I think the 2005 version may have it correctly located.
Now for the remarkable. First its discovery. Abandoned since the late 14th century, robbed of much of its stone for farm buildings, Penhallam was only rediscovered in the 1960s when forestry workers were clearing land for planting. It is in the care of English Heritage, bane of a particular kind of vandalistic Cornish nationalist who likes to deface its signs. Why not join Cornwall Heritage Trust to help care for EH's sites? Almost more remarkable is that there is no other similar site in Cornwall - and its age. Begun around 1180 by Richard fitz Turold, it became by descent a home of the de Cardinham family. Moated on three sides, it was steadily extended by them to become four ranges around a central courtyard, with a drawbridge over the moat. The de Cardinhams finally abandoned this home sometime in the late 14th century. When I saw Penhallam in September 2006 the moat was dry after a long hot summer. |
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Car park on Newmill-Week St. Mary road. 15 minute woodland walk. |
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There are a hundred or more of these 'rounds' in Cornwall. Popular belief is convinced that they are 'plen-a-gwary' or 'playing places', amphitheatres created to stage the Cornish Ordinalia, early medieval Christian 'miracle plays'. Indeed, the Ordinalia was performed in these rounds, which made perfect amphitheatres, but most predate the Ordinalia by around 1500 years. At least the majority are the remains of iron-age fortified farmsteads. Piran (or Perran) Round, at the village of Rose near Perranporth, is an obvious example; 130 feet in diameter, its banks some 12 feet high, with a 6 foot ditch on the outside of the banks, and two entrances, it was clearly defensive. The St. Piran Project has begun clearing away scrub and weeds. An odd depression near the centre, two bowls joined by a straight channel, was probably made for one of the many activities that have taken place here - the plays, wrestling matches, village picnics, fetes and even the Cornish Gorsedd of Bards. Indeed in 1969 the Drama Department of Bristol University staged the Ordinalia here. A couple of miles north, in the sand dunes known as Penhale Sands, are the site of St. Piran's Oratory and a later church dedicated to him. |
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On the north-western
edge of the china clay fields just to the
north of St. Austell, and just south of the unprepossessing village
of Roche, is a granite outcrop about 100 feet high. Built into it
is a granite tower. This is said to have been the hermitage of one
Ogrin who gave shelter to the lovers Tristan and Isolde,
escaping the wrath of the latter's husband King Mark. Unfortunately
for the legend, the tower was built 900 years too late, in 1409, though
in style it seems to be romanesque from a period a couple of hundred years
earlier than that. A footpath leads up to the rock from the Roche
to Bugle road. Look to the south and you will see the vast china
clay spoil heaps.
An iron age hill fort, just off the road from Lostwithiel to Fowey, and known as Castle Dore, is the legendary site of King Mark's castle. His nephew Tristan, was the lover of Yseult (Isolde), the Irish princess married to Mark. A stone inscribed in Latin, once near Castle Dore, reads in translation "here lies Drustanus (Tristan) son (?) of (Marcus) Cunomorus". The stone once stood by Castle Dore, was moved to the former east lodge of Menabilly and now stands by the roadside nearer Fowey. Menabilly has Daphne du Maurier associations, appearing in 'Rebecca' as Manderley. |
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| Even if you have no interest in archaeology, this is a spectacular site and well worth the effort to walk to. It is Cornwall's best visible example of an iron age promontory fort, occupied for 500 years up to 100AD. The four ramparts remain clearly visible though the entrance is modern. Once there would have been a massive wooden gateway protecting a site with round houses and internal grazing. Views are spectacular: to Tintagel and well beyond to the east, to Stepper Point and Trevose Head to the west. Easiest access is from the National Trust car park a little beyond Pentireglaze Farm, from which the walk along the coast path is easier than that from New Polzeath. |
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