Watch Croft

Nearest town:
Penzance (7km ESE)
OS reference:
SW421357
OS sheet:
203
Latitude:
50° 9' 52.13 N
Longitude:
5° 36' 42.11 W
Added to TMA by

Images

Image of Watch Croft (Cairn(s)) by Chris Bond

Reputed cairn or structure on The Beacon at Watch Croft from the south-west. Photo taken on 29th of May 2004. © Chris Bond.

Image credit: Chris Bond
Chris Bond
Chris Bond Aug 11, 2024
Image of Watch Croft (Cairn(s)) by Chris Bond

Reputed cairn or structure on The Beacon at Watch Croft from the south-east. Photo taken on 29th of May 2004. © Chris Bond.

Image credit: Chris Bond
Chris Bond
Chris Bond Aug 11, 2024
Image of Watch Croft (Cairn(s)) by Chris Bond

Watch Croft cairn from the south-west. Photo taken on 29th of May 2004. © Chris Bond.

Image credit: Chris Bond
Chris Bond
Chris Bond Aug 11, 2024
Image of Watch Croft (Cairn(s)) by Chris Bond

Watch Croft cairn from the east. Photo taken on 29th of May 2004. © Chris Bond.

Image credit: Chris Bond
Chris Bond
Chris Bond Aug 11, 2024
Image of Watch Croft (Cairn(s)) by Chris Bond

Watch Croft cairn from the north-west. Photo taken on 29th of May 2004. © Chris Bond.

Image credit: Chris Bond
Chris Bond
Chris Bond Aug 11, 2024
Image of Watch Croft (Cairn(s)) by thesweetcheat

Substantial kerbs on the southern cairn. Looking towards the summit. The standing stone can just be seen on the skyline.

Image credit: A. Brookes (23.6.2021)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat May 8, 2022
Image of Watch Croft (Cairn(s)) by thesweetcheat

Kerbing on the southwestern edge of the southern cairn.

Image credit: A. Brookes (23.6.2021)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat May 8, 2022
Image of Watch Croft (Cairn(s)) by thesweetcheat

The northeastern edge of the cairn to the southwest of the summit is build around a large granite rock, possibly a natural outcrop. Looking towards the summit, with its own monuments.

Image credit: A. Brookes (23.6.2021)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat May 8, 2022
Image of Watch Croft (Cairn(s)) by thesweetcheat

Kerbing on the southwestern edge of the cairn southwest of the summit.

Image credit: A. Brookes (23.6.2021)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat May 8, 2022
Image of Watch Croft (Cairn(s)) by thesweetcheat

The cairn southwest from the summit. The kerbing on the east side is unusual (if original) as it’s formed of more than one course.

Image credit: A. Brookes (23.6.2021)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat May 8, 2022
Image of Watch Croft (Cairn(s)) by thesweetcheat

Looking towards Nine Maidens Downs and Ding Dong. Mounts Bay beyond, with the dark line of the Lizard on the horizon.

Image credit: A. Brookes (24.6.2015)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Jul 20, 2015
Image of Watch Croft (Cairn(s)) by thesweetcheat

Likely to be another kerb stone, displaced at the base of the cairn. Looking SW across the West Penwith moors.

Image credit: A. Brookes (24.6.2015)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Jul 20, 2015
Image of Watch Croft (Cairn(s)) by thesweetcheat

The approach to the main summit cairn. The surrounding gorse/heather mix makes any step off the narrow path very hard work.

Image credit: A. Brookes (24.6.2015)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Jul 20, 2015
Image of Watch Croft (Cairn(s)) by thesweetcheat

The natural outcrop surrounded by possible cairn base, from the east.

Image credit: A. Brookes (16.6.09)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Jul 20, 2009
Image of Watch Croft (Cairn(s)) by thesweetcheat

Watch Croft cairn from the natural outcrop. The walker’s shelter built from the stones of the cairn is visible to the left of the trig point.

Image credit: A. Brookes (16.6.09)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Jul 20, 2009
Image of Watch Croft (Cairn(s)) by thesweetcheat

The view from the south, showing (l-r) the natural outcrop, the menhir and the cairn on the summit of Watch Croft

Image credit: A. Brookes (6.2002)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Jan 23, 2009
Image of Watch Croft (Cairn(s)) by thesweetcheat

The remains of the circular shelter against the south side of the rocky outcrop, believed to be the site of a barrow.

Image credit: A. Brookes (6.2002)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Jan 23, 2009

Articles

Watch Croft

thelonious
thelonious Oct 2, 2012

25/09/2012 – We were going to park west of Men-An-Tol but found ourselves in the middle of a hunt. Dogs, big horses and people wearing a lot of red. All a bit odd but each to their own, I suppose. Instead we drove north to park at Carn Galver. A shortish climb found us at the top of Watch Croft. What a place for a cairn. Amazing 360 view and for the first time I felt a long way from home. We stood on the nearby summit rock and watched the rain pass through creating a rainbow above the cairn. Magical. Carried on to Men-An-Tol and the Nine Maidens. A great walk in a great area.

Watch Croft

Mr Hamhead
Mr Hamhead Apr 11, 2011

10 April 2011
Fantastic sunny day with little wind. Decided to do a circular walk taking in Watch Croft, Carn Glava, and Bosigran. Approcahed Watch Croft from the west, parking the car beside the fork in the road with the ‘modern’ quoit above Morvah. A Bridleway leads up the hill to the old mine and the adjacent houses. At the entrance to the houses we turned right and followed a vague path up to the summit and trig point. BE CAREFUL..plenty of pits in the area...they may not be very deep but you never know!
Even in early April the amount of undergrowth makes going off path difficult but we made the summit easily and took in the views. The standing stone is just south of the summit and a little bit of a disappointment after the others we had seen in the previous 24 hours...but nevermind.
From here we headed east on a well used path to Carn Galva...always the highlight of any trip to the far west.

Watch Croft

thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Jul 20, 2009

Visited 16.6.09, walking from St Just and Tregeseal. This is the first time we’ve actually been up to Watch Croft for seven years. Late last year a decision was made to introduce a new grazing scheme affecting the croft (and Tregeseal, Men an Tol and Lanyon), which has been deeply unpopular, so I was worried that access to the croft would be restricted. We came up the bridleway from the SW and passed an odd square galvanised object lying next to the path – it turns out that this was a cattle grid that had been installed and then removed again due to various problems. The introduction of the scheme is clearly not going smoothly.

Anyway, the access appears to be largely unaffected on the south side of the croft (I think it may be a different story on the north side) so we managed to get up to this terrific spot without any trouble. It’s a great place to come on a sunny day, with an ever present breeze to keep you cool. As the highest point in the peninsula, the views are excellent, especially to the south to Ding Dong.

One thing I noticed that I didn’t spot last time is that the eastern barrow (with the trig point) has been subjected to the building of one of those annoying walker’s windbreaks that are made from the stones of cairn itself (this is a problem on the North York Moors, but I haven’t seen it here before). Even so, the cairn is impressive and well worth a visit, with the added bonus of a nicely tapering standing stone just down the slope.

Watch Croft

thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Jan 23, 2009

Visited in June 2002. Watch Croft is the highest point in Penwith (252 metres). Approached from the road to the west and then along the bridleway leading from the Dakota turning. There’s a bit of a cross-heather scramble to reach the summit (and there are some mine-shafts to avoid!) but it’s worth it for the views across West Penwith, particularly to the south, where the ever-present landmark of Ding Dong and the surrounding moors are laid out. Gurnards Head cliff castle is visible to the NE.

At the summit, there is a natural rock outcrop, against the south side of which the remains a circular structure are clearly visible. According to Craig Weatherhill (“Belerion” 1981), this is suspected to have been the site of a barrow. W.C. Borlase excavated and found nothing.

The other summit is surmounted by a fine, large (66ft diameter, 8ft high) cairn topped with an OS trig point. Again according to Weatherhill, some pottery was turned up when the OS erected the pillar.

Just down the slope to the south is a 6ft standing stone of an unusual (for this area) irregular shape.

Another barrow lies 275 metres or so to the SW of the summit, but we didn’t see this. A revisit is obviously called for.

Miscellaneous

Watch Croft
Cairn(s)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat May 2, 2022

Details of the two cairns to the SW and south of the summit, excerpts from the Cornwall & Scilly HER:

SW cairn (SW 4191 3545)

WC Borlase recorded two cairns at Watch Croft. The south west barrow, 8.8m in diameter and enclosed by a ring of twenty stones set on edge, was excavated by him in 1863. Inside he found a cist containing an urn. On top of a cist, below its covering stone he found several Roman coins. The OS surveyed the cairn at 1:2500 in 1960. It is 1.7m high and 13.0m in diameter, and consists of a circular dry stone wall of large granite blocks with loose granite rubble piled within and around it. The top is slightly inclined towards the centre and a large outcropping rock is built into the south side of the wall. The cairn is very spread and mutilated by two excavations within the walling. The natural rock and shallow depression mentioned by Borlase is just inside the north circumference of the wall. The depression may be natural as two other large rocks near the cairn here have well formed rock basins. No trace remains of the cist which Borlase discovered.

Southern cairn (SW 4205 3524)

Pool in 1960 noted a barrow at Trevean. The OS who surveyed the remains at 1:2500 in 1961 record a cairn with a maximum height of 1.2m. The perimeter is retained by a drystone wall of large stones with a pronounced inward batter. The wall is mostly of large stones on edge but in places there are two courses visible. An excavation trench has been driven through the mound from east to west with a large circular hollow a little east of the centre. Spoil from this excavation is scattered on the outside of the cairn, particularly to the north east. Russell in 1971 lists the extant remains of a mound with retaining wall.

Topics

Thinking of trying for this... 9
ocifant
ocifant
Apr 2010

Sites within 20km of Watch Croft

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