Mystery of the Fogous
Fogous
Inside Carn Euny fogou
Fogous are a big mystery. Stone-built tunnels, they are often curved, between 5m and 20m long, sometimes with a small side-chamber called a 'creep'. At Carn Euny there's a sizeable chamber off the fogou.Often they are built as part of an Iron Age settlement. The big question is why they were built. Answers range from spiritual initiatory chambers to storehouses and hideaways, and there are no records offering clues. They probably had a lot to do with women's rites, as a women's space and for activities important to women.
They could also involve subtle-energy technologies for upgrading seeds, sharpening tools, curing, brewing and preserving foods, amongst other things.
Pendeen Vau fogou
The likelihood is that they had multiple purposes, perhaps for healing, as retreat places, for invoking the underworld, for oracles and ceremonies or as places to convalesce or die in peace. But it's likely they were a space for women and/or run by women.Use of such places for cool food storage or keeping beer, or for storing tin or gold, or for similar purposes, was not as profane as we would nowadays think - all these things were given by the gods, deserving the best treatment.
There is evidence that the ends of at least some curved fogous are oriented to the rising and setting points of the sun at summer solstice. This indicates a sacred purpose to do with letting light into the darkness. Theories abound, but we still do not know exactly what fogous were built and used for. Fogous are all located in West Cornwall, built between 500 BCE and CE 500. Eleven survive, with 25ish further possibles.
Fogous
Iron age underground chambers and tunnels, unique to West Cornwall.
Boleigh Well preserved fogou (on private property). SW 4372 2519. 50.071463 -5.5829392.
Carbis Bay Iron age fogou. SW 5204 3882. 50.197349 -5.4757581.
Carn Euny Iron age fogou with adjoining chamber. Open to the public. SW 4024 2885. 50.102804 -5.6339570.
East Bosporthennis fogou. SW 4372 3671. 50.174866 -5.5906767.
Higher Bodinnar Giant's Holt or Higher Bodinnar fogou. Damaged. SW 4150 3230. 50.134320 -5.6187105.
Keigwyn Destroyed fogou. SW 3976 3447. 50.153035 -5.6444891.
Lower Boscaswell Lower Boscaswell Fogou. SW 3767 3484 50.155435 -5.6739387.
Park Vorn fogou. SW 4404 3467. 50.156693 -5.584832.
Pendeen Vau fogou. In farmyard (ask permission). SW 38365 35533. 50.161961 -5.664706.
Privacy. This site uses temporary cookies to watch general trends only. We aren't selling anything, capturing, mining, passing on your data or making mailing lists. It's a public service - no strings. Any issues, please make contact.