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Boleigh

Fogou

Folklore

Jo May (the former owner of the fogou) mentions some legends connected with the site.

Firstly, " in AD937 the fields surrounding the site witnessed the slaughter of the last of the Cornish Celts led by Howel in their final battle against King Athelstan and his invading Saxon army. The fogou is known as the 'Boleigh Fogou' and Boleigh means 'place of slaughter'. Legend has it that after the battle the stream by the fort ran red with blood."

He also has a tale connected with the Civil War: that in 1646 some Royalist soldiers who were fleeing the Parliamentary troops were kindly concealed in the dank fogou for several days by a member of the Levellis family. May points to two apparent blocked vents in the roof as a relic of this episode.

May also suggests that the fogou was used as a hiding place for smugglers' and wreckers' booty.

The place became known as the Grambler Grove, it was "..well wooded and the upper part thickly covered with hazel, thorn and elder, with a tangled undergrowth of briars, brambles and furze. Few persons liked to pass this place, because strange noises were heard and fires often seen within it by night, when no one would venture near the place."
(Jo May, who seems to be quoting Blight's 'Churches and Antiquities of West Cornwall' (1885) in 'Fogou' (1996), a sample of which is online at
http://www.gothicimage.co.uk/books/fogou1.html
Rhiannon Posted by Rhiannon
14th June 2005ce
Edited 20th November 2012ce

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