Cornwall & the Isles of Scilly
Art, History & Archaeology Sites & Museums

An Iron Age village inhabited from the 5th century BC until at least the 4th century AD. What we see at the site today dates to the later phase of the village. The village is made up of a series of interlocking courtyard houses typical of the Iron Age in west Cornwall and best seen at nearby Chysauster Ancient Village. The most intriguing feature of this site is a large, well preserved underground passage with a sizeable underground chamber – both of which are made from stone.

Chysauster is the best preserved Iron Age courtyard house settlement in the country. This very well preserved village comprises eight courtyard stone houses that are typical of Cornwall and the Scilly Isles. Four of these houses are on either side of a well defined ‘street’. The layout of each stone house is very clear, each had a central, open courtyard that was surrounded by a number of rooms that probably had conical, thatched roofs. There is also evidence of garden plots, fields and paddocks.

In open farmland on the road from Newlyn and Penzance to Land’s End is a cluster of ritual and funerary monuments dating to the late Neolithic and early Bronze Age. The main attraction is a modest but perfect stone circle known as the Merry Maidens. Nearby are a few standing stones, the tallest still standing menhirs in Cornwall, and a partly destroyed burial chamber. As with many megalithic sites in the area, the stone circle and standing stones here get their names from a local legend.

Occupation of the tidal island goes back to the Neolithic, although it is the fourteenth century priory church and castle dramatically constructed on rock that draws peoples attention today; the Cornish equivalent of Mont Saint-Michel in Normandy. Owned and still lived in by the St Aubyn family, Saint Michael’s Mount is managed by the National Trust. During the summer the castle provides a backdrop for a wide range of activities and events, suitable for all ages.

One the side of the B3315 road, about 100 m west of the car park at Merry Maidens stone circle, is a partly preserved late Neolithic burial chamber. What we see at the site today is a walled and roofed entrance passage which would have lead into a central chamber, which was covered by the road some time in the mid 1800s. In front of the entrance is a slab with cup and ring markings. This is a replica, the original is in the Royal Cornwall Museum. The first excavations were conducted in 1871. Pits were found, filled with ash and bone remains, suggesting cremation.