Cliff Sanctuaries - Ancient Penwith | Cornwall

Ancient Penwith
The prehistoric landscape of West Penwith, the Land's End peninsula, Cornwall
Ancient Penwith
Ancient Penwith
The prehistoric landscape of the Land's End Peninsula
Ancient Penwith
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Cliff Sanctuaries

Cliff Sanctuaries


'Cliff castles' is a misnomer. They were sanctuaries and visiting places more than defensive sites, though clearly they had a range of purposes. So 'cliff sanctuaries' is what we call them here.

Cape Cornwall or Kilgooth Ust, from Kenidjack valley
Cliff sanctuaries are usually not rated highly as ancient sites, yet they are key coast-hugging sites of great importance. Here you will find out how.

Normally they are classed as Iron Age (800ish BCE to CE 200ish), but evidence from examining the backbone alignments suggests they were important long before then, preceding the Bronze Age menhirs, stone circles and barrows by a millennium.

There have also been sufficient archaeological finds at cliff sanctuaries to justify an earlier dating. This implies a large change in the way we understand the prehistory of West Penwith.
Gurnard's Head, telephoto from near Pendeen Watch
Gurnard's HeadTo the Neolithics, headlands were similar in importance to tors and hilltops. They were places to get away to, special places to visit.

Places of awe and power, they were located on the edge of the land, mighty headlands protruding into the vastness of the ocean - here you can look out toward the far rim of the world.

These are customarily called 'cliff castles', a Victorian antiquarians' concept, but they were not castles or defensive sites. If they were fought over, of which there is zero evidence, it would have been because they were key tribal properties.

Major backbone alignments define the positioning of key sites in Penwith such as stone circles and particularly Lanyon Quoit. These alignments are anchored primarily to cliff sanctuaries and tor enclosures. This is a critical issue.

On the map below, cliff sanctuaries marked  *  are suggested and possible, not recognised ones.
The converging alignments going off the right-hand side of the map are all heading toward Carn Brea.
The cliff sanctuaries of West Penwith
Dating the Cliff Sanctuaries
Kilgooth Ust or Cape Cornwall, as seen from Sennen
The geomantic framework of West Penwith is plugged into the natural hilltop and headland sites - the tor enclosures and cliff sanctuaries - which at that time were the most important sites in Penwith.

Backbone alignments preceded the stone circles by a thousand years and they determined stone circles' location. When the stone circles were thought up around 2400 BCE, they were located on backbone alignments.

Backbone alignments were anchored to the cliff sanctuaries and tor enclosures, the key sites in Penwith during most of the Neolithic.
Treryn Dinas
How can we date the cliff sanctuaries to the Neolithic rather than the Iron Age? Lanyon Quoit, dated around 3600 BCE, is located at the intersection of three backbone alignments stretching between cliff sanctuaries and Neolithic tors. It could not otherwise have been sited so precisely at this location.

So the cliff sanctuaries were important around 3600 BCE - as indicated by the existence of the backbone alignments used to locate and build Lanyon Quoit. This is how we can date the cliff sanctuaries to the Neolithic. But there is archaeological evidence too. It also makes sense that these sites were revered in those times.
Purposes of Cliff Sanctuaries

In Neolithic times people had a need to claim space as human space. Neolithic people were engulfed in nature. They were surrounded by a wooded vastness where travelling distances wasn't easy and getting lost wasn't difficult. There were woodland hazards such as wolves, bears, boars, brambles and bogs.
St Michael's Mount seen from Penzance
People were seeing themselves as a distinct species - hence a growing need to demarcate land as special places. This was our land, where human rules pertained.

Power and atmosphere suffuse the cliff sanctuaries, and they fulfilled a number of needs - needs for special places. Just as we go to cafes, town squares or parks today, in summer people of that time went to cliff sanctuaries and hilltops.

Perhaps at times these locations functioned as places of counsel, assembly, events, judgement of disputes or inter-tribal meetings. Or they were for quiet retreat, teaching, healing and initiation, perhaps for safe storage of tribal valuables and assets, and as natural temples for ceremonies, invocations or rites of passage.
Gurnard's Head
The use and character of each headland was unique. In some cases they were elemental places for being alone, or to die in peace, or simply for quiet reflection. They could have been hangouts for the eccentrics, shamans, wise-women or hermits of that time. They were places where people could commune with the ancestors, the lineage of the tribe and the vastness of Creation. They were places for gatherings and celebrations. They would have had practical uses for watching the weather, tides and omens, tracking shoals, seals, dolphins, whales and boats, and for keeping watch over the ocean or looking at the stars.

To find out where these cliff sanctuaries are, click here for a map and look for the symbols around the coast. Alternatively, click the link to each cliff sanctuary below.

On the Edge - a trip around the cliff sanctuaries


SW 3571 2325

Carn Lês Boel was never inhabited - it wouldn't be suitable. It was reserved for special things. It is an energetic place with a wide-open character, exposed when the winds and gales are up. Not a good place to live.

It's special and strong. Perhaps it served as a place for the seers and holy people, and perhaps their trainees. Ovates (counsellors and judges) could have held court there, or ancient druids might have held special rites on special occasions. It's distinctly a holy place with a steady, uplifting majesty, a sense of space and awe, like a launchpad for the far beyond. Part of its name, Lês or Lys, means 'court'.

There were two thresholds to cross when entering the carn. The first was a small ditch not far from the coast path, which demarcated the headland, and the second was two gateway stones. One is a classic propped stone, propped on a few small rocks.

On the summit is a flattish platform where it is possible to feel a strong energy-vortex - if you visit, see if you can find the spot and stand on it awhile.

A menhir-like rock is tipped over the side of the platform that might well have been upright and sitting on top of this vortex - a person is standing on it. The propped gateway menhir and the fallen menhir are where the two people are in the foreground.

Further down the carn are two more vortices - one at an upstanding boulder and another at a rock platform further down. See if you can find them.

The carn has a strong feeling of spirit and the presence of ancient beings - hallowed space. It feels connected with the whole wide world. It is otherworldly, deep and dimensional, with a profound sense of interiority.

It is aligned with Avebury, Glastonbury Tor, the Hurlers stone circle, Helman Tor and Carn Brea, on the Michael Line. Progress that alignment southwestwards on a great circle route and you come to the Mayalands of Yucatan, Mexico, 4,000 miles away.

This is one of the most special places in Penwith - and that's why it's mentioned first. Approach with respect, stay there awhile, and you might find that you receive a gift of grace in your heart and soul, with a few insights thrown in for good measure.

On the north side of the carn is a collapsed cavern - now a big gash. It is reckoned that this fell in possibly sometime in the last 2,000 years - it was a cave, not a gash, in ancient times. These seal caves were important to the ancients: a newly-discovered nearby menhir at Higher Bosistow, the Seal Stone, is shaped like a seal looking toward the caves.
Pordenack Point
SW 347 243

Just up the coast from Carn Lês Boel, Pordenack Point is not a cliff sanctuary, but it has some of their properties.

It has a friendly, happy, likeable feeling, as if social gatherings and celebrations took place here. It is impressive, high and surrounded by a remarkable panorama of cliffs and rock islands. An inspiring granite platform on top could easily accommodate fifty people.

Pordenack Point has a remarkable collection of simulacra or zoomorphic rocks close by - a massed assembly of rock-beings or a gallery of fantastical geological artistry. They take on the form of beings, staring out over the Western Ocean, warding off the ocean waves and storm gods, as if holding Britain in place to protect it.

There are remains of a Bronze Age circlular enclosure at Pordenack which is exactly aligned on a summer solstice alignment with Caer Brân and Castle an Dinas, two other Bronze Age circular enclosures in Penwith. This makes Pordenack Point rather a special site. It has a chambered cairn too.

'Pordenack' means a fortified headland, but this perhaps refers not to man-made fortifications as to the bold, vertical, castellated rocks forming its cliff.
Logan Rock, SW 3972 2198, formerly called Castel Tredyn, the castle of Tredyn.

Treryn Dinas has a haunting feeling of magic with a brooding mystery to it - a place not to be messed with. It's a place with a feeling of mystery, power, sorcery and truth. It is impressive in the feeling it has. In folklore it was the home of giants.

Treryn Dinas is not exactly welcoming but it's not unfriendly either. It's worth going there to feel the brooding, mysterious character of the place.

This headland has two parts, the rocky Dinas itself and a large encampment to its landward side called Treen Circle, built in the Iron Age. However its first use would have been in the Neolithic. Neolithic artefacts and relics have been found on the Dinas - items and offerings hidden in the rocks.

Treen Circle lies exactly on a backbone alignment passing through the Merry Maidens, St Michael's Mount and Carn Brea - two Neolithic tor enclosures and one Bronze Age stone circle. Treryn Dinas and Treen Circle were thus, logically, important at the same time. This place is so prominent and rich in character that it must have been important from the very beginning of human life in West Penwith.

Antiquarians once thought there was a stone circle in Treen Circle, but this is unlikely.

It was the most inhabited of the cliff sanctuaries except for St Michael's Mount. Treen Circle could have housed quite a few people or hosted some pretty large gatherings. This might have been a summer residence, owing to its exposure. It was strategically placed not far from Porthcurno, one of Penwith's prime landing beaches. The encampment was large, hosting quite a few roundhouses and separated from the surrounding landscape by a rampart and ditch.
Treryn Dinas as seen from Treen Circle
Unlike many other cliff sanctuaries, Treryn Dinas had practical and economic value, with good farmland and fishing grounds nearby and a commanding position overlooking Porth Curno. The magical, witchy quality of the dinas itself is very present, and it is rather tortuous to climb around.

A major backbone alignment runs from the Dinas to Boscawen-ûn, Lanyon Quoit, Bosiliack Barrow and a proxy menhir just yards from the Nine Maidens stone circle. So three of Penwith's stone circles are linked to Treryn Dinas - that's significant.
Gurnard's Head
SW 432 386

This cliff sanctuary has a mysterious feeling of depth, as if a portal to the underworld. There's something intensely gentle and still, immovably abiding, about it - a quiet darkness with a glimmer of light within it.

It's fiercely elemental, with a feeling of deep interiority - a good place for vision-questing or retreat in ancient times. The slightly dark atmosphere there is not negative but underworldly, indrawn, with a quality of stark truth.

Gurnard's Head was occupied during the Iron Age, at least seasonally. On the right-hand slope in the picture here, the remains of sixteen huts have been found. Life was probably spartan, likely for inspirational more than practical purposes. It would not be a useful place to live for purposes such as farming or fishing - other nearby places would be better.

So the people who stayed or lived there were probably there for less worldly reasons such as retreat or training. Exposed to northerly winds, it might be that two or three people lived there through the winter and the population swelled in summer.
Gurnard's Head from Carn Naun, with Pendeen Watch behind
One could imagine it as the abode of an oracle or soothsayer, or of hermits. This is a place of solitude, not a social meeting place for gatherings or ceremonies - Bosigran Castle (below) is better for that.

Unlike most of Penwith's cliff sanctuaries, which are of granite, Gurnard's Head is metamorphic Devonian greenstone - hence its rather different feeling. These sedimentary rocks have been cooked hard, on the edge of the granitic extrusion that is Penwith, and they are less crystalline in nature.

Gurnard's Head is geologically and vibrationally different from Penwith's other cliff sanctuaries. It's worth a visit - park at the Gurnard's Head hotel and walk down (sometimes it can be muddy). Hang out there awhile.
'Stone castle', SW 3476 2576, near Sennen

Maen Castle seems quite functional and panoramic - perhaps as a lookout. Though actually, the nearby Mayon Cliff, nearer Sennen, would function better for that.

Iron Age pottery sherds found there are sometimes interpreted as signs of residential occupation, though equally they could be signs of feasting and temporary residency in summertime.

Though exposed to westerly winds, it is quite liveable, and there are field systems on the slopes nearby. In Neolithic and Bronze Age times, people moved around their patches in a yearly cycle, exploiting the virtues of different places at different times of year. This place would have been a pleasant summer location.

It's not as prominent as many cliff sanctuaries, though it's the only one in its vicinity. It was the home to the mythic giant Myên Du. At times it has a rarefied, spacious, wide-open atmosphere. Sometimes it gets lost in the fog.

It's aligned with Boscawen-ûn and St Michael's Mount in one direction and with South Hill, Bryher, on the Scillies in the other, so it is geomantically prominent and one of the key mainland connection points with the Scillies. This major alignment suggests why the cliff sanctuary is where it is, rather than up on Mayon Cliff.
Maen Castle is not photogenic. That's a shipwreck below it.
One mysterious question is this: Maen Castle is not the most prominent headland in the vicinity, yet it is definitely a cliff sanctuary, and there are plenty of remains and artefacts to prove it. Pedn-men-du (Mayon Cliff) to the north and Dr Syntax's Head to the south are far more prominent, but they are not cliff sanctuaries.

So, why is it here? One reason is the above-mentioned alignment - an important one. Choosing Maen Castle instead of one of the other headlands nearby suggests that the ancients considered alignments to be important to the extent of deliberately building ancient sites on them, even if their visible landscape qualities are unspectacular, as is the case here.

Archaeologists deem it to be the oldest of the cliff sanctuaries. However, it is likely that most cliff sanctuaries were revered around the same time, since Penwith is not big and its early inhabitants will have ranged around all of it. All the cliff sanctuaries would have been known early in humanity's occupation of Penwith.
SW 4169 3688

There's a story that this cliff sanctuary was the court of a queen - a rendering of the name means 'Ygraine's home', this being the name of King Arthur's mother. This place certainly has a hospitable, sociable feeling to it. So Ygraine, if she existed, must have been a nice lady, leaving a strong imprint on the place.

Bosigran has a happy, light, healing feeling - inspiring though not occult in atmosphere like neighbouring Gurnard's Head. Probably a great place for Neolithic picnics. For ceremonies or social gatherings it could accommodate 200 people. There is no evidence of occupation - though pleasant summer nights spent there, around a campfire, would have been wonderful.

It lies below Carn Galva, Penwith's magic mountain. Perhaps the tribe that 'owned' Bosigran Castle lived up under Carn Galva, coming down to Bosigran as a summer visiting place.

It has an Iron Age rock rampart sectioning it off from the surrounding land, though it is doubtful that this was defensive. More likely, it was an energy-threshold where you are definitely given the feeling you're either inside or outside. So pause when you enter, out of respect.

There are several distinct areas on top of the headland, each with rock platforms - so a number of things could happen at the same time. At one area there is a throne-like rock where the chief, the teacher or druid could have sat with his or her flock. There is a feeling that teaching was carried out here.

The top of Bosigran is littered with embedded rocks and stones and, apart from the boundary rampart, there are only a few signs of rock-moving or the placing of rocks except in two instances:
The logan stone at Bosigran
First, there is a logan or rocking stone on the top. These are flattish granite boulders that stand balanced in such a way that they could be rocked. It's possible they were placed there, or moved slightly to make them rock. What the purpose of logan rocks was, we do not know, but there are many signs the ancients thought them special.

Further along the left side of the headland, there is a sunken area with an interesting array of rocks that suggests a council circle - as if for quiet, undisturbed discussions or group processes. Nearby is a line of three rocks with aligned edges oriented to the end of Pendeen Watch, the next cliff sanctuary along the coast. More of these oriented stones are being discovered around the coastline.

It's a pleasant half-mile walk down from the road to Bosigran Castle. It's worth going down into the zawn below, Porthmoina Cove, to watch the seabirds and waves - and the climbers! There are some interesting tin-mining remains in the valley leading to the zawn, with signs of early tin-streaming methods having been used.
Pendeen Watch behind Gurnard's Head, from Carn Naun
SW 379 359

This is not commonly recognised as a cliff sanctuary, though its name, Pen Dinas, or 'headland stronghold', betrays this purpose.

This cliff sanctuary has several important alignments - a sign of its significance. One goes through Carn Galva, Trencrom Hill and the Wendron Nine Maidens stone circle to Nare Head and on toward South Devon. Another goes through Lanyon Quoit to St Michael's Mount. Another aligns with Gurnard's Head and finishes at Peninnis Point on St Mary's in the Scillies. Another goes through Chûn Castle and Lesingey Round (both Neolithic sites) as far as Lizard Point.
Looking down at Pendeen Watch from Carn Eanes
There are no archaeological traces of a cliff sanctuary here. Just rocks. It has been changed by relatively recent building works, the lighthouse and the nearby house.

But it's undoubtedly a cliff sanctuary, by dint of its name, its prominence as a headland and its remarkable alignments.

It has a commanding view and is excellent for watching the summer solstice setting sun. It's a distinct headland at one of the corners of the Penwith coast.
Cape Cornwall
SW 350 319, or Kilgooth Ust, near St Just

Cape Cornwall has been affected by tin mining and smelting in recent centuries - the chimney on top being a remnant. There are only small traces of ancient remains here, mostly a few now-invisible cairns above Priest's Cove, but it was undoubtedly a cliff castle. It cannot not be so, since it is so prominent.

It aligns with Zennor Hill, St Ives Head and St Agnes Beacon, and a direct alignment goes from here through Botrea Barrows to St Michael's Mount. Other alignments go over to Scilly. It is proud and upstanding, easily seen from Scilly and out to sea.

Prominent and strategic, with a harbour cove on either side, it was close to early tin-streaming workings up and down the coast of Penwith. There was gold in the vicinity in Neolithic times. Priest's Cove (Porth Ust) immediately south of it was one of the landing places on Penwith for boats arriving from Scilly. Porth Ledden, immediately north, was engaged in the tin trade, with valuable arsenic-rich sources of tin very close in Kenidjack valley and Botallack. Arsenic hardens bronze, enabling sharper and more durable implements and ornaments.
Cape Cornwall telephotoed from Sennen
Kilgooth Ust was hot property in Neolithic times. It makes a bold statement that would be a source of pride for the local tribe, who probably controlled the Tregeseal stone circles too, just inland.

Ballowall Barrow, a large and unique Neolithic chambered cairn, is just southwards on neighbouring Carn Gloose. The Brisons, the double island just off the Cape, was probably not an island in Neolithic times - sea levels were lower.

It's easily visited by car and with a short walk - the the National Trust is likely to sting you for car parking charges though. There's a small cafe there too.
St Ives Head, with Carrick Du in the foreground
Another Pen Dinas, or 'The Island' at St Ives. SW 5208 4115

The Island (a promontory) is not usually thought of as a cliff sanctuary yet it's a classic, not unlike Cape Cornwall and St Michael's Mount in shape and connected with them by alignment.

Like Cape Cornwall, remains of its ancient history have been obliterated by subsequent events, in this case from the Christian period and in connection with the local cult of St Ia, a christianised druidess-healer from Ireland. She reputedly sailed in on a leaf to inspire and lead the locals some 1,500ish years ago. Clearly she made a big impression on the place.

The headland was a cliff sanctuary overlooking the majestic St Ives Bay, paired at its other end by Godrevy Point which, though not a cliff sanctuary, had many characteristics of one and is a Bronze Age and earlier ancient site.
St Ives Head, centre of picture, as seen from Godrevy Head
A considerable alignment node, there seem to be two centres to St Ives Head - one where the chapel lies and one where the coastwatch station stands (a more classic cliff castle position).

St Ives was a landing place for boats from Ireland, Wales and the Severn Sea. In medieval times it was a pilgrimage harbour linked to St Michael's Mount by a path now called St Michael's Way, for pilgrims heading to Santiago di Campostela, Rome or Jerusalem. At times it will have had lots of visitors over the millennia - still the case today.

The headland guarded a trading harbour at the current harbour site at St Ives. The history of this place is obscure, but St Ives Head clearly one of the key cliff castles of Penwith, staking out one of the peninsula's corners, and looking the part.
St Michael's Mount
SW 5143 2984

The Mount can be classed as a tor enclosure or a cliff sanctuary. This is a special, striking, archetype-rich island, very much the focal point and axle of Mount's Bay, and known for its long involvement in the ancient tin trade and for visits by foreigners over the ages.

The Greek traveller Pytheas, who circumnavigated Britain by boat sometime around 325 BCE in Alexander the Great's time, visited here. When back in Greece he left accurate descriptions of his travels, including plausible references to St Michael's Mount, transmitted to us in the writings of Diodorus Siculus some time later. There is a chance that it is the tin port of Ictis, mentioned by Posidonius, a Greek philosopher and geographer from Rhodos.

Unlike many of Penwith's ancient sites, the Mount has had an almost continuous history of use through many historic periods, as a Neolithic tor enclosure, a hill camp or fort, a trading place, a monastery, a village, a stately home and, most recently, a museified National Trust property.

In Neolithic and Early Bronze Age times it was not an island - it was a mount in woodland. It became an island later, and remains of the woods are occasionally revealed under the sand during storms such as in 2014. Radiocarbon dating puts this inundation at around 1700 BCE. It was an island by the time Pytheas came along.

Power places are pervaded with place-memory - an imprint of whatever has happened there. A lot has happened at the Mount over 5-6,000 years, and its atmosphere is defined by this. As a Neolithic site it was probably idyllic, especially with the equable climate of that time. It has hosted a small village for millennia - a good place for fishing, trading and also retreat. It was a well-connected harbour that was busy right up to the development of Penzance and the arrival of the railway in the 1860s.

It's a really special place, though nowadays somewhat sanitised by National Trust conservation efforts and tourism. You can walk over at low tide or catch an amphibian boat at high tide from Marazion. Best visited outside the main tourist season.
Tol Pedn Penwith / Gwennap Head
Gwennap Head. SW 3672 2180

No obvious or recognised cliff sanctuary exists here, even though it is the south-westernmost point of the British Isles.

But there are scanty records of one, and there is a viable location too (here, looking southeast over a flattish area as seen from the coastwatch road).

Further down, there is a rock headland, Hella Point, that is characteristic of some cliff sanctuaries - notably, the three 'type two' cliff sanctuaries in Penwith for which 'no evidence' is the descriptor. These are Kemyel Point, Carn Naun and Tol Pedn Penwith. All have a flattish region higher up, with a marked rock outcrop lower down.

Tol Pedn Penwith was renamed Gwennap Head in the 1880s (it crops up in the BBC shipping forecast). It would be fine for summertime residence in ancient times, perhaps for fairs, ceilidhs or ceremonies - or perhaps for viewing the winter solstice sunset south-westwards, which would be prominent at this location. However, it is completely unsheltered in high winds, so as a residential site it is not advised.

It has a cove on each side - Porth Gwarra and Porth Loe, both of them later on becoming smugglers' coves. It's a funny place, slightly bleak, even though it is the south-westernmost end-point to the Isles of Britain.
Hot Property
Hella Point, part of Tol Pedn
Hella PointEvery tribe will have treasured its landscape assets, and a prominent headland would have been highly valued. It would be a place of peace, space, wonder and power, a sanctuary for the soul of the tribe where gatherings or rites might be held and offerings made.

Watching for the movements of fish shoals, seals and dolphins was a factor, not just for hunting and fishing but also to read the signs and significance of their movements, in an oracular or prophetic sense.

During times of social stress, cliff sanctuaries might have been scrapped over, but it doesn't figure that most of these places were used as defensive sites. Some are defensible, yet they are easy to lay siege to, many of them lacking escape routes. They were mostly not very strategically placed, unless for a last stand. So their defensive function is something of an illusion. Yes, they were strongholds - sanctuaries - but a military function is unlikely. If defence of Penwith was needed, there would have been cliff castles at Sennen and Porthcurno - two landing beaches vulnerable to attack - but there are none.

These were each tribe's sanctuaries and clifftop shrines, meeting places and special places. They had energy of their own which was consecrated and enhanced through human activity. They formed a necklace of sites 'energy-holding' the Penwith peninsula.
Penwith Staked Out

Cliff castles of West PenwithThe cliff sanctuaries mark the peripheries or bounds of Penwith. Look at this map and you'll see how they are spaced roughly evenly around the peninsula.

If the ancients thought of Penwith as a magical landscape, then the cliff sanctuaries, as places of magical-spiritual power, guarded or 'held' the peninsula.

By sanctifying the cliff sanctuaries and significant hilltops of Penwith, the health and spirits of the whole peninsular landscape could be enhanced. This is a fundamental principle of geomancy: if the subtle energy-structure of the land is healthy, all is well in heaven, on earth and in the realm of humans.

Thus the immunity of the peninsula to attack or to ill fortune rests upon 'holding the light' of Penwith and maintaining energy-balances in the area. After all, the ancient name for West Penwith, Belerion, means 'shining land'. A key intention behind the geomantic system, marked out by the backbone alignments, was thus arguably to enhance Penwith's spirit and fortunes.

The spacing of cliff sanctuaries suggests that two further sanctuaries are possible, at Carn Naun in the north, and Kemyel Point in the south. Lescudjak hillfort above Penzance could qualify as part of this system too.
Trencrom Hill from St Michael's Mount
The straight, almost due-North alignment from St Michael's Mount to St Ives Head, passing through Trencrom Hill, acted as the landward energy-boundary of Penwith. The peninsula is thus energetically ring-fenced.

If we were to look on Penwith as a landscape canvas stretched out within a containing frame, then the cliff sanctuaries would act as that framework. And they are well worth visiting today.

For more about the geomantic significance of tors and cliff sanctuaries: The Backbone.
Cliff Sanctuaries
Sanctified coastal cliff headland sanctuaries (cliff castles), often ascribed to the Iron Age but going back to the Neolithic (3000s BCE).
Type One: with Bronze or Iron Age rampart. Type Two: higher peak or platform with lower outlying rock. Type Three: island or prominent headland, often an alignment hub.
BOSIGRAN CASTLE Cliff sanctuary with logan rock, oriented stones (pointing to Pendeen Watch), 'council circle', 'sage's seat' and other features. Type One. Frequented by climbers. SW 4169 3688. 50.175510 -5.619163.
CAPE CORNWALL Headland with destroyed cliff sanctuary going back to the Bronze Age. Aka Kulgyth Ust or Kilgooth Ust (St Just's goose-back) or Penkurnow. Once thought of as Cornwall's most westerly point - the original Land's End. Type Three. An alignment hub. SW 350 319. 50.127, -5.706.
CARN LÊS BOEL Cliff sanctuary with gateway menhirs, boundary bank and tumuli. Dramatic. Seal caves underneath - one now a collapsed cavern (possibly in Middle Ages). Western end of Michael Line. Type One. SW 3567 2323. 50.050357 -5.6938421.
GURNARD'S HEAD aka Trereen Dinas cliff sanctuary. Made of greenstone, not granite. Iron age huts found on eastern side slope. Type One. SW 432 386. 50.191605 -5.599221.
KENIDJACK CASTLE Cliff sanctuary with huts, a series of banks and an oriented stone. Signs of artisan activity. Type One. SW 355 326. 50.134367 -5.702697.
MAEN CASTLE Cliff sanctuary - reckoned one of the oldest in Cornwall. Type One. Thought of as Iron Age, it's probably Neolithic in origin. SW 3476 2576. 50.072649 -5.70828.
PENDEEN WATCH Pen Dyn cliff sanctuary (destroyed by the building of lighthouse and house). Type Two. SW 3797 3590. 50.165081 -5.6704773.
ST IVES HEAD Pen Dinas, aka St Ives Island. Type Three. SW 5208 4115. 50.218326 -5.4766763.
ST MICHAEL'S MOUNT An island since 1700 BCE only – before that it was a mile or so inland from the coast. Major node on the Michael and Apollo lines, and a remarkable place. Neolithic tor and cliff sanctuary, with multiple historic layers. Managed by National Trust. Type Three. SW 5143 2984. 50.117048 -5.477489.
TOL PEDN PENWITH Gwennap Head/Tol Pedn Penwith cliff sanctuary, located on Britain's southwesternmost point. Type Two. SW 3672 2180. 50.03798 -5.67821. Hella Point: cliff promontory with simulacra, part of cliff sanctuary. SW 3707 2144. 50.034911 -5.6731067
TRERYN DINAS Logan rock and promontory with cliff sanctuary, also with upper gathering area called Treen Circle. Type One. SW 3972 2198. 50.040937 -5.6365979.
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