The Rumps
Rumps
Even if you have no interest in archaeology, this is a spectacular site and well worth the effort to walk to. It is Cornwall's best visible example of an iron age promontory fort, occupied for 500 years up to 100AD. The four ramparts remain clearly visible though the entrance is a modern re-creation. Once there would have been a massive wooden gateway protecting a site with round houses and internal grazing. Views are quite spectacular: to Tintagel and well beyond to the east, to Stepper Point and Trevose Head to the west. Easiest access is from the National Trust 'lead mines' car park a little beyond Pentireglaze Farm, from which the walk along the coast path is easier than that from New Polzeath.
The Rumps headland seen over the modern entrance
Ramparts clearly visible in this shot against the light
St.
Photographs
More in Antiquities
The Tristan Stone
Tristan Stone
Tregeseal Circle on Carnyorth Common, south of Trewallard
In early July 2006 I headed for West Penwith in search of more antiquities. After spending some time at Sancreed, I parked at Geevor Mine in Trewellard - not far from St. Just and Cape Cornwall - where I returned later to make a report on the museum, and enjoyed a pleasant and an easy four or five mile walk. I found more than I bargained for - at Sancreed Cornish crosses, a holy well and a bronze age barrow; on and around Carnyorth Common, boundary stones, a line of holed stones, a stone circle, an abandoned farmstead and a relatively contemporary farm with ancient field walls. I have to confess that I failed to find the stone circle first time and had to drive up rutted tracks later to find it from a different direction! I was back later on foot, walking the Penwith Round. On the way I drove through Tregeseal village which itself was quite a delight, its colourful cottages and gardens nicely tucked away from the St. Ives - St. Just road. Sadly this circle of around twenty stones, having been restored, was rapidly being engulfed again in bracken. It had turned quite dark and drizzly when I got here, so I got no worthwhile photo then. However, I have been back many times since and discovered that the site is being maintained again, by Cornish Heritage Trust, and is in much better shape.
Tregiffian Vean Chambered Cairn near Land's End
The fact that there is a better known Tregiffian neolithic long barrow close to the Merry Maidens in the Lamorna area confused me for a long while. So in April 2008, when doing a walk from Land's End, I looked at the OS map, saw that 'chambered cairn' was shown between Higher Tregiffian and Tregiffian farms, and decided to include it in my walk. It was easy to find, in a long field through which a path runs between the farms and, despite its small size, visible from quite a distance. When I got to it, my first thought was that this was no chambered cairn at all but just a heap of stones that a farmer had piled in a field. However, when I got home and looked it up on the web I found a posting by Pure Joy on The Modern Antiquarian , quoting Craig Weatherhill's book Belerion, Ancient Sites of Land's End as follows: "This barrow has suffered dreadfully and it is only a shadow of the fine and unusual monument excavated by W.C.Borlase in 1878. It was then a kerbed mound 6.4m in diameter, containing a rather odd-shaped chamber. This was 2.4m long, 0.9m wide and just 0.5m high, but its inner end opened out to a width of 1.2m and a height of 1.0m. Like the tomb at Tregeseal the entrance was blocked by a single slab. The roof of the chamber consisted of three slabs and the tomb contained ashes and an urn". Sad that an important ancient monument - it is of the Scillonian type - should have been allowed to be so badly damaged.