Cruc Draenoc is one of many barrows which dot the landscape around Goonhilly Downs, but this one benefits by its close proximity and intervisibility with the Dry Tree menhir.
From that stone the unmistakable lump of the barrow looms to the south west, easily distinguished by the trig point and concrete post which crown it.
We poke about the barrow, the late evening sun still blazing down on us. The mound itself is quite low, but it stands on the highest point of the downs, and the view out and down to the sea is wonderful. It’s difficult to discern the exact size and shape of the barrow due to the ferns which mask its outline, but it’s mercifully free of the thorny gorse which covers much of the downs, and no longer lives up to its old Cornish name, Cruc Draenoc, which means ‘barrow of the thorns’.
It’s a strangely beautiful landscape here, and a nice bonus to stumble across a barrow of this size at the end of a pleasant walk.
Although this area of the Lizard is covered in barrows there are very few other remains to be seen except for the odd menhir like Dry Tree. WARNING! Not all is as it seems...during the 2nd WW the RAF set up a base here called RAF Dry Tree. Much of the base was to do with radar and telecomunications, hence the dishes we see today. The other remains that lie across the landscape are whats left of the station, including some of the "barrows". Take a closer look and you will see that some of the humps and bumps hide modern buildings, all part of the war effort to camoflage the area.
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