Mr Hamhead

For some strange reason I have never visited Chysauster before....is it cos you have to pay! No..can’t be that, I flashed my Tour Guide badge and got in for nothing.although I did by a book.

I chose a great day to visit, the sun was shining, the whole site bedecked in flowers, gorse and foxgloves prominent. The only slight problem was the easterly wind...but this did at least mean that the casual visitors didn’t stay long.

There was more to see than I thought, and much easier to decipher what’s what than at Carn Uny (although the guide covers Carn Uny as well). There are 9 houses to explore, in different stages of preservation and after a while they all start to follow the same pattern, eastern entrance, courtyard, bay on the left, long room on the right and round room opposit entrance. Each house has at least one “stone with hollow”, not allways in the original position and most have the remains of water channels, lines of stones running down across the courtyard.

I know English Heritage come in for critism sometimes on this site but I have to say I was happy with the way Chysauster was presented. Yes there are info boards dotted around the area but they are not too intrusive..and not everybody wants to buy a book. The gray hut at the eastern end could be moved a bit further away from the main village. I was not sure if it was a tea shop at busy times or where the lawn mower is kept. That was another thing, the site was tidy, the grass was short in the houses but the flora was allowed to grow elsewhere. Some clearence of gorse has taken place, but all in all there was a nice ballance.

Good clean toilets at the car park..nice to know if you are walking in the area.

26.5.06

You wait nearly 30 years to get back into a site...and you are met by thick mist!

As a young army cadet I spent several weekends at the MOD camp at Penhale...with no interest in history. Now that I am a big boy I finaly get to go back in on a fieldtrip to look at landscape (sand dunes).

Walking down through the radio station at the north end the low banks of the Iron Age cliff castle were pointed out to us...through the mist...I was not allowed to go too close so the only photo is the best I could get.

Who knows what the strange hoops are that sit inside the banks...the MOD guy had no idea!

The SWCP runs the other side as far as I know but they were keen to stress that trespassers are not tolerated!

Mr H

Can’t find any documentary evidence on this one, but....
Unless you knew it was there it can only be spotted from the bottom of the permissive footpath that exits RedMoor nature reserve and climbs to meet the Saints Way. Once you start climbing it is hidden by gorse bushes and once on the Saints Way the banks are so high you can see nothing.
It’s a big stone!...and just outside the area enclosing Helman Tor. An ancient trackway passes just down slope from it and in the hedge/scrub behind is a large dump of granite that has been cleared from the field. Why was this stone left?
So, I can not prove its origins or find a record of it on maps or any of my books...but it feels right!

I have now had it suggested to me that this stone has been moved from elsewhere in the field...and that they had dowsed the field and found an area with a stone setting in it...

Go look for yourself..and while you are there enjoy the “prehistoric” wildness of Red Moor reserve.

Brown Gelly is one of those hills you see from miles around...and notice that it has features on top. Right of access has always put me off climbing it, but now that it is open access I decided to take a stroll up onto the summit on a glorious May afternoon.
There are a couple of gateways along the Dozmary Pool-St Neot road that give access to the hillside and then another couple of gates give access into the summit field.
Please use them and don’t go scrambling over walls or fences.
The top of the hill is reasonably flat and featurless, several wet areas are best avoided and it is only the southern end that has rocky outcrops.
Along the ridge run five cairns, the size of which you only realise once you get up close.
At the northern end a large cairn has had its top compleatly taken away and the inside scooped out. Uninterupted views of Dozmary Pool and Brown Willy and Roughtor can be had from the cairn.
The second cairn I found the most interesting. I suppose it would be called a ring cairn..but on a giant scale. The outer bank is about 3 ft high with a depresson about 4 or 5 ft across inside of it before reaching the central mound. The central mound has been dug into deeply, and looked like it might be holding water...I didn’t investigate.
The central cairn is the largest and I would think about 15 ft high. It stands proud on the hill with steep sides and a good dome shape. Although there has been some excavation on the summit it is not too severe.
The fourth cairn is a mess. It has been dug into and pulled about and is just a low pile of stones. A Trig point stands beside it, built onto what looks like a base of stones taken from the cairn.
The last cairn at the southern end has again been dug into but not to the extent of cairn 1 or 4.

Sitting on the side of the hill that eventually becomes Brown Gelly, I can not find any info on this earthworks to date it. Marked on the OS map as a three sided square, the south east side was not visable but may be over the wall.
So, what is left?
Two low ridges with a shallow ditch on the outer side, all getting eroded by cattle. As can be seen in one of my photos there is some stonework remaining at the north east end.
Access is by a gate off the Dozmary Pool to St Neot road and is on open access land.

Just to the east of the huge Boconnoc estate in east Cornwall sit a group of 6 or so barrows. They may be linked to the Taphouse barrows on the other side of the estate, the two groups between them certainly form a impressive collection of large barrows.
The Buckabarrows stretch out along the eastern boundry road of the estate. The four photgraphed here are joined on the OS map by two others, one deep in the woods at SX166607, which I never got to and one supposed to be in a field at SX174611, which I failed to spot.
Bucka or Bucca is a Cornish word for ghost but i have not come across any tales about these barrows being haunted....barrowwrights in Cornwall! ......there’s a thing!

I have been intrigued by the Giants Hedge for many years...Living in Looe at it’s supposed eastern end I could never understand why it was called giant..it is just like any other hedge...more like a bank as it runs through Kilminorth Woods beside the West Looe river.
It is only when you see it towards its western end at Lerryn that you realise it is no ordinary field boundary.
But when does it date from?...the general consensus is that it is post Roman...so it really should not be on here, but...
There are several Iron Age and older settlements inside the hedge (between it and the sea), but then again there are a good dozen or so barrows just to the north of it....but none as grand inside.
Walking along the top of a short section of it this morning i noticed how good the view was across the Cornish countryside. It does in many places run along the side of a steep escarpment..and if topped off with a wooden fence would have been quite impenetrable.
Whatever it’s history, I’m sure no giants were involved in its building.......just some very hard working Cornishmen of old.

...and I would love to know where the bit is that’s 8 yards across !