pure joy

Mentioned by Craig Weatherhill, in “Cornovia: Ancient Sites of Cornwall & Scilly” (Cornwall Books – 1985, revised 1997 & 2000) – “The high central spine of this headland is protected by natural outcrops, but there are faint signs of a wall here. North of this is a well preserved triple Iron Age defence. The outer ditch is 1.2m deep and the stone ramparts behind it are 2.4m, 3.3m and 2.1m high. An entrance roadway, its north side revetted with stone, hugs the foot of the central rocky spine; two round houses lie beyond. The southern defences are behind a natural rocky ridge, and consist of two battered stone banks 1.2m high with traces of outer ditches. There are two hut platforms immediately behind the inner bank.”

Just off the coastal footpath.

Mentioned by Craig Weatherhill, in “Cornovia: Ancient Sites of Cornwall & Scilly” (Cornwall Books – 1985, revised 1997 & 2000) – “Two dilapidated stone ramparts 60m long, with outer ditches, cross the high, narrow neck of this rugged headland, defending an area of 3 ha. The inner bank, 3.0m thick, reaches a height of 1.8m; the outer rampart is now no more than 1.2m high. The two halves of each rampart are slightly out of alignment, forming staggered entries that are now difficult to see. 10m south of these defences is a short length of ditch above the eastern cliff, apparently an unfinished outer defence. Excavation in 1939 showed that the back of the inner rampart had been fashioned into three steps, providing a stance for slingers, as in some Breton cliff castles. Within the ramparts, on the lower eastern side of the headland, are sixteen round houses averaging 6.0m in diameter. They and the ramparts are second century BC.”

Just off the coastal footpath, on National Trust openland.

Craig Weatherhill believes that this is actually an aboveground fogou. In “Cornovia: Ancient Sites of Cornwall & Scilly” (Cornwall Books – 1985, revised 1997 & 2000) he writes of “a scattered settlement of at least three Iron Age/Romano-British courtyard houses and several round houses in a sheltered spot at the eastern base of Hannibal’s carn. In a central position within the settlement is the intriguing ‘beehive hut’, now regarded as an aboveground fogou from its strong resemblance to the Phase 1 structure at Carn Euny. It had a round, corbelled chamber 4.0m across (the lintelled entrance from the south-west is modern), connect by way of a low, heavily built portal to a small, oblong chamber 3.3m by 2.1m, which was its original entrance passage (the wall blocking the south-east end is also modern). Both chambers are now roofless. The best preserved of the courtyard houses, with an adjoining paddock and walls up to 1.5m high, lies 180m to the west of the fogou; another, 60m south of the fogou, has a medieval cowshouse built inside its courtyard.”

Mentioned by Craig Weatherhill, in “Cornovia: Ancient Sites of Cornwall & Scilly” (Cornwall Books – 1985, revised 1997 & 2000) – “The slopes of Garrow Tor are strewn with the remains of settlements and fields which probably date from the Middle or late Bronze Age. Most of the fields are of strip type, with their long axes at right angles to the contours. The main centres of settlement are at SX147786, SX144780 and SX143781. The huts, of which well over a hundred are visible, are from 6.0m to 8.0m in diameter, with walls up to 1.5m thick and 0.9m high. At SX145780 are the ruins of an extensive settlement of medieval longhouses. Excavated huts have produced pottery, beads, slate bangles and querns.”

Janet & Colin Bord’s early gazetteer (“A Guide to Ancient Sites in Britain”,1979, Paladin Books) shows a really interesting photo of the site after it had been excavated and left open (i.e. with at least 13 of the chamber stones sticking up proudly, before it was backfilled into the lumpy mess it is today). The book actually calls for the exposed stones to be preserved properly – presumably they had visited the site before it was backfilled in 1976 and didn’t know that by the time the book was originally published (in 1978) it had already been covered over, although maybe not in the sensitive way that had hoped for!

The book comments “This Neolithic tomb is a good example of what happens to a megalithic burial chamber which is excavated and left open to the weather. When burial chambers are restored, a certain amount of rebuilding is necessary, and such unnatural materials as concrete are often used. This work can with some justification be criticised by the purist. But if the alternative is a sad picture of dereliction, such as we see at Notgrove, then surely preservation is justified. When the result is a beautiful structure like Belas Knap long barrow not far away, preservation is certainly justified.”

Cheryl Straffon in ‘The Earth Mysteries Guide to Ancient Sites on the Scilly Isles’ (Meyn Mamvro – 1995, revised 1999) gives the following information “to the west [of Tean] is the small inlet of Old Man which has a ruined entrance grave in a mound with kerb, orientated E-W to the equinox (at SV90491631). On the west side of the inlet the sea uncovered a cist (at SV905163) which was excavated in 1933 and 2 bronze brooches found.”

Jeanette Ratcliffe in ‘Scilly’s Archaeological Heritage’ (Twelveheads Press, 1995) gives the following information “Visible below high water mark is a fragmentary system of rectilinear fields defined by boulder walls. Some are well-preserved with long stretches of set boulders, others have become spread by wave action. They are of prehistoric or Romano-British dates and probably originally connected with similar ones on Old Man, in East Porth and in and around St Helen’s Porth. On the south-west side of the system is a large cairn, stones heaped around natural rock with seven kerbstones around its perimeter – the result of stone clearance or a burial cairn.”

Jeannette Ratcliffe in ‘Scilly’s Archaeological Heritage’ (Twelveheads Press, 1995) gives the following information “On the summit of this hill, built against an outcrop, is a flat-topped cairn surrounded by ten kerbstones housing a rectangular chamber, whose walls protrude just above ground level. No capstones survive. To the south, an oval area enclosed by a low stone and earth wall is either a ring cairn or round house, with a possible entrance on its south side. At the hill’s south-western end, a cairn, defined by a kerb of massive slabs (now mostly fallen) and natural rocks, contains a chamber, with slab and coursed walling, partly destroyed on the south-east side. These are two displaced capstones.”

This tiny island, on the south east of the Eastern Isles, has a cairn at SV95531366. I think the first person to get fieldnotes on this definitely deserves a pint or two!

Jeannette Ratcliffe in ‘Scilly’s Archaeological Heritage’ (Twelveheads Press, 1995) gives the following information “On the summit of this hill, built against an outcrop, is a flat-topped cairn surrounded by ten kerbstones housing a rectangular chamber, whose walls protrude just above ground level. No capstones survive. To the south, an oval area enclosed by a low stone and earth wall is either a ring cairn or round house, with a possible entrance on its south side. At the hill’s south-western end, a cairn, defined by a kerb of massive slabs (now mostly fallen) and natural rocks, contains a chamber, with slab and coursed walling, partly destroyed on the south-east side. These are two displaced capstones.”

Craig Weatherhill and Paul Devereux, in ‘Myths and Legends of Cornwall’ (Sigma Leisure, 1994) believe that “Bolster is a good example of a giant being named after an earthwork, in this case the Bolster Bank which runs from Chapel Port to Trevaunance Cove, thus enclosing a large area of tin-rich land including the entire hill of St.Agnes beacon. The bank is now interrupted in a number of places and an isolated fragment immediately south of Bolster is a contraction of ‘both lester’ (boat-shaped hump).”

The round apparently still stages the occasional miracle play, and the Cornish Gorsedd has been held there three times.