The Main Ancient Sites of West Penwith
Penwith's SitesThis is a starting guide, with notes on each of the key sites listed below, together with specific research suggestions for each site.
It's still in construction.
Selecting forty or so sites from over 800 isn't simple. Some are clear (such as tors and stone circles) while some are (for our purposes) more marginal (such as cairns and menhirs).
So this list is a thought-through selection with which to work. If further sites are added, consider potential mission-proliferation problems. (A 'to do later' list might be a solution.)
In these notes, a brief introduction to each site, and some observations and suggestions are given to act as a starting-place for each site. More information can be found on this website and on the online maps of Penwith's ancient sites (see right >), and by trawling the internet and publications such as Meyn Mamvro.
One key mission is to pull together the disparate research already done - articles, notes, web-pages, scraps of paper. We need an archivist type for this!
Some of the comments here are Palden's personal opinion, or perhaps expressed in order to loosen up conventional thinking.
Neolithic (3000s BCE)
Carn Galva
Carn Kenidjack
Trencrom Hill
St Michael's Mount
Bosporthennis
Chûn
Lanyon & West Lanyon
Mulfra
Sperris & Zennor
Bosigran Castle
Cape Cornwall
Carn Lês Boel
Gurnard's Head
Kenidjack Castle
Maen Castle
Pendeen Watch
St Ives Head
Tol Pedn Penwith
Treryn Dinas
Bronze Age (2500-1200 BCE)
Boscawen-ûn
Mên An Tol
Merry Maidens & Tregurnow
Nine Maidens
Tregeseal E & W
Bartinney Castle
Caer Brân
Castle an Dinas
Pordenack Point
Chûn Castle
Lesingey Round
Faugan Round
Lescudjak Castle
Ballowall Barrow
Boscregan Cairns
Bosiliack Barrow
Botallack Common
Botrea cairns
Brane chambered cairn
Mayon Cliff cairns
Treen chambered cairns
Sancreed Beacon
Watch Croft cairns
On other Pages
In preparation!
General resources:
Interesting Stuff
Useful reading:
Boswens
Carfury
Drift menhirs
Kemyel-Swingate
Mên Scryfa
The Pipers
Fogous (Iron Age)
Boleigh
Carn Euny
East Bosporthennis
Higher Bodinnar
Lower Boscaswell
Pendeen Vau
Trevorian – stone circle?
Giant's Grave – quoit?
Grumbla Cromlech – quoit?
Rosemergy – stone circle?
Treen Common Circle ??
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.