‘Drive By’ 17.4.12
The Barrows are either side of the road at the junction of the A30 / A39 (Carland Cross)
Driving past I was able to 5 Barrows.
Two are large; one is of a medium size and two little more than ‘bumps’ in the field.
It is hard to be more precise about their size when viewing from a moving car!
Not sure which would be the best approach for a closer look due to the very busy roads?
These are situated VERY close to where i live, within walking distance. I visited them with my father for the first time a month or two back, and it is the first antiquity site i have visited whilst knowing what it is.
In the past, i have travelled past one particular one in the back of my parents car without ever knowing what it is ow that it had any significance whatsoever!
only shame about these sites is that they are situated very close to a VERY busy bypass (boo!) otherwise these would be great places for me to visit regularly.
... The number existing is twenty, and they are arranged in two groups, which, in describing them, we may call Eastern and Western. The whole of the barrows form an arc of a circle [...] Of these barrows three deserve attention: viz. the highest, Warren’s Barrow, which is locally so called from a belief that a certain General Warren is buried there, of whom nothing whatever can be ascertained; Jenkyn’s or Hendra Barrow, why Jenkyn’s is not known, Hendra because it is situated on the land of the adjoining farm of the same name; and the demolished barrow, which stood at the arc’s extreme curvature. [...] There is a local tradition, and there is no reason against its general acceptance, that Warren’s Barrow was used for signalling by means either of fire or smoke, between the Four-Barrows, Carnmenellis, and the other surrounding heights. From its summit there is a clear view W. and S., as from the summit of the now demolished barrow there was a clear view N. and E.
From ‘Description of the Carland Barrows’ by the Rev. Prior, in the Journal of the Royal Institution of Cornwall v 13 (1898).
