Chysauster Iron-Age Village

Thursday 20 August 1992. Continuing our week's holiday in Cornwall, after visiting Land's End (first and last public toilet in Britain...) we headed for a totally different experience altogether. Chysauster is the site of an Iron Age village.

Mum and Dad got in as pensioners despite falling short of the age limit - in Mum's case she was short to begin with! The village is approached through a fogou. This would have been an enclosed tunnel but now the roof has fallen in and it is more like a narrow but fairly deep alleyway.

The huts here were still occupied as recently as during Roman times and are between 1500 - 2000 years old. Each had several rooms around a central courtyard and some had gardens at the back.

The courtyard of this hut has a water channel (to the left of Dad). The family's animals would have lived here. The water must still run along the channel as can be seen from the darker patch of grass at the bottom of the picture.

Looking from Hut 6. The hillside was covered in glorious purple heather. We all waved at a helicopter making it's way to Penzance. Whether they saw the crutch or thought perhaps that we were lost I don't know - but they circled round for another look!

Hut 4 had either a rather large hearth, or maybe it was the smallest room???

The afternoon was drawing on. As it starts to go dark we reach St Agnes model village and theme park.

We thought this was very funny but some Germans who were walking round behind us were not amused - especially when I offered them the twig so they could take their own photos...

Cornwall 1992 Holiday Index

Trevelgue Island Defences

Saturday 3 August 1996. We had a meal in the little cafe opposite the beach at Porth and then set off to walk onto the island as we always do on the first night in Newquay. This is a Burke tradition going back over many years.

It is a true island only at high tide when the sea surrounds it completely. From this viewpoint we are still on the mainland promontary where it forms the northern side of the bay at Porth. Behind us from this point the Iron Age defences begin, guarding the gap between mainland and the island, formed by a rent in the rock that goes all the way down to beach level.

The mainland and island have been joined by a bridge and on either side of the bridge are high earthwork defences. High now, but they have had two or three thousand years of erosion, that not only reduces the height of the walls, but that also fills up the ditches between them.

My nephew, standing on the top of one of the walls. They would be seriously off-putting to any but the most determined attacking force.

Looking along the rent in the cliffs that makes the tip of the promontary an island at high tide. It is high tide and I am standing on a narrow timber bridge linking the two bits of land.

The view from the island side, looking back owards the bridge and mainland. How long must it have taken with no machines to help them make these immense earthworks? Trevelgue isn't a true hillfort with earthworks surrounding it. The bulk of the fort is defended instead by sheer cliffs, not easy to climb, but possible perhaps. In any case defending the length of the perimeter of the island would be a daunting task, requiring a huge defending force. There probably wasn't a great deal of plunder or even natural resources to be gained from any attack, but the defences are probably sufficient to not make the attempt worthwhile for the sake of a handful of slaves and a few domestic farm animals.

It's no surpirse to find thistles on the island. Innocuous as they may seem, a single spark into the white seed head filaments are a sure way of causing a flame. However it only lasts a second or two so you need something else to catch the fire from the burning seed head.

I find sites like these fascinating. Many people laugh at me when I get excited at stuff like this. Even Fran tends to say things like "It's just a hill..." It's not though. Someone had to decide that there was going to be a "hill" there and then they had to build it, forming foundations, packing material into a dense self-supporting mound and then many times, digging a ditch at its foot to make the slope even higher.

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