Bartinney Castle

Last updated

Bartinney Castle and trig point Trig point within Bartine Castle, Bartinney Downs - geograph.org.uk - 40934.jpg
Bartinney Castle and trig point

Bartinney Castle is an Iron Age enclosure located in the Penwith Peninsula of Southwest Cornwall, England, it is surrounded by a circular earthwork standing on a hill surrounded by various archaeological prehistoric remains, including ancient settlements, field systems, tumuli and cairns.

One mile to the southwest is Carn Brea, the westernmost hill in Britain; and a mile to the southeast is Carn Euny Iron Age village and fogou, and the neighbouring Caer Bran hillfort and Sancreed Beacon. [1] [2] [3]

On the hilltop are the remains of a circular bank, about 250 feet across, and an encircling ditch. This bank may have been much higher and there are suggestions the site could have been a sacred enclosure or Plen an Gwarry, which was a type of amphitheatre with rows of stone seats where feast days or fire festivals celebrating the Celtic solar god, Belenos, were held or where mystery plays were staged. Other theories suggest a large disc barrow or an unfinished hill fort; the outer wall is not high enough to have been of any defensive value. In the centre of the enclosure are three smaller circles arranged in a triangle, originally made of contiguous stones which have since been removed. The largest of these is forty feet in diameter; the other two are about 25 and 30 feet across. [4]

Local parish records suggest that Bartinney Castle was the site of a Celtic fire festival marking the harvest or Samhain, the Celtic New Year's Day.

The name Bartinè signifies the lighted eminence, or the hill of fires (Cornish - Bretanow). The Druids, it is said, had their fires on the eve of November, when the people were obliged to resort and re-kindle the private fires in their houses from the consecrated fires of the Druids, the domestic fire having been first carefully extinguished.

On Midsummer's Day, in recent times, the inhabitants, of this parish were greeted with sounds resembling the discharge of musketry in different directions, proceeding from holes bored in rocks, which being charged with powder were exploded in succession; and on the same day a new flag was displayed on every mine, and the night was ushered in with noisy festivities, and bonfires blazing on many of the hills.

[5] [6]

The name may also be derived from Tinne, the Druid name for the holly tree, the burning of which was associated with the death of the old year and the coming of the new one on Samhain or 31 October. [7] Tinne also means a metal ingot or iron bar according to the Bríatharogam.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fogou</span> Ancient dry-stone underground structures in Cornwall

A fogou or fougou is an underground, dry-stone structure found on Iron Age or Romano-British-defended settlement sites in Cornwall. The original purpose of a fogou is uncertain today. Colloquially called vugs, vows, foggos, giant holts, or fuggy holes in various dialects, fogous have similarities with souterrains or earth-houses of northern Europe and particularly Scotland, including Orkney. Fewer than 15 confirmed fogous have been found.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carn Euny</span> Archaeological site in Cornwall, England

Carn Euny is an archaeological site near Sancreed, on the Penwith peninsula in Cornwall, United Kingdom. It consists of evidence of both Iron Age and post-Iron Age settlement, with excavation on the site showning activity at Carn Euny as early as the Neolithic period. The first timber huts there were built about 500 BC, and 400-500 years later were replaced by stone huts; the remains of which are still visible.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St Keverne</span> Human settlement in England

St Keverne is a civil parish and village on The Lizard in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carn Brea, Redruth</span> Civil parish and site in Cornwall, England

Carn Brea is a civil parish and hilltop site in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The population of Carn Brea including Bosleake and Church Coombe was 8,013 at the 2011 census. The hilltop site is situated approximately one mile (1.6 km) southwest of Redruth. The settlements of Bosleake, Brea, Broad Lane, Carn Arthen, Carn Brea Village, Carnkie, Four Lanes, Grillis, Illogan Highway, Pencoys, Penhallick, Piece, Pool, Tolskithy, Tregajorran, Treskillard, Tuckingmill and West Tolgus are in the parish.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pendeen</span> Village and parish in Cornwall, England

Pendeen is a village and ecclesiastical parish on the Penwith peninsula in Cornwall, England. It is 3 miles north-northeast of St Just and 7 mi (11 km) west of Penzance. It lies along the B3306 road which connects St Ives to Land's End and the A30 road.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St Buryan</span> Village in southwest Cornwall, England

St Buryan is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of St Buryan, Lamorna and Paul in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. In 2011 the parish had a population of 1412.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sancreed</span> Human settlement in England

Sancreed is a village and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, approximately three miles (5 km) west of Penzance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hill of Uisneach</span> Hill in County Westmeath, Ireland

The Hill of Uisneach or Ushnagh is a hill and ancient ceremonial site in the barony of Rathconrath in County Westmeath, Ireland. It is a protected national monument. It consists of numerous monuments and earthworks—prehistoric and medieval—including a probable megalithic tomb, burial mounds, enclosures, standing stones, holy wells and a medieval road. Uisneach is near the geographical centre of Ireland, and in Irish mythology it is deemed to be the symbolic and sacred centre of the island. It was said to be the burial place of the mythical Tuatha Dé Danann, and a place of assembly associated with the druids and the festival of Bealtaine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St Agnes, Cornwall</span> Village and civil parish in England

St Agnes is a civil parish and a large village on the north coast of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The village is about five miles (8 km) north of Redruth and ten miles (16 km) southwest of Newquay. An electoral ward exists stretching as far south as Blackwater. The population at the 2011 census was 7,565.

Prideaux Castle is a multivallate Iron Age hillfort situated atop a 133 m (435 ft) high conical hill near the southern boundary of the parish of Luxulyan, Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is also sometimes referred to as Prideaux Warren, Prideaux War-Ring, or Prideaux Hillfort. The site is a scheduled monument and so protected from unauthorised works by the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chapel Carn Brea</span> Granite outcrop in west Cornwall, England

Chapel Carn Brea is an elevated Hercynian granite outcrop, owned by the National Trust at the southern edge of the civil parish of St Just, Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The hill is 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) south of St Just and 3.5 kilometres (2.2 mi) east of Sennen Cove, and just to the north of the A30 London to Land's End road, which runs through the village of Crows-an-Wra. It should not be confused with another Carn Brea, the hill overlooking the Camborne–Redruth area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lescudjack Hill Fort</span> Iron Age hillfort in Cornwall, England

Lescudjack Hill fort is the name given to the unexcavated Iron Age settlement located in Penzance, Cornwall. It is positioned on the summit of a steep hill in the east of Penzance and consists of a single rampart enclosing an area of 3 acres (12,000 m2). The site has been damaged and contains allotments and an open area of land which has recently been cleared of thick undergrowth. It is reported that a small lead-copper mine was situated "just outside" the ramparts, however all trace of this appears to have vanished.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caer Bran</span>

Caer Bran Hill Fort is an archaeological site near Sancreed and Carn Euny Iron Age village, on the Penwith peninsula in Cornwall.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sancreed Beacon</span>

Sancreed Beacon is a Bronze Age archaeological site near the village of Sancreed in the Penwith peninsula of Cornwall maintained by the Cornwall Heritage Trust. On top of the hill are several stone cists and Bronze Age archaeological remains comprising burial mounds and the remains of a Bronze Age hut on the Western slope.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Plen-an-gwary</span>

A plen-an-gwarry or plain-an-gwary, is a "playing-place" or round, a medieval amphitheatre found in Cornwall. A circular outdoor space used for plays, sports, and public events, the plen-an-gwary was a Cornish variant of a construction style found across Great Britain. Formerly common across Cornwall, only two survive nearly complete today: the Plain in St Just in Penwith and Saint Piran's Round near Perranporth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Promontory forts of Cornwall</span> Cliff castles in north-west Europe

Cornish promontory forts, commonly known in Cornwall as cliff castles, are coastal equivalents of the hill forts and Cornish "rounds" found on Cornish hilltops and slopes. Similar coastal forts are found on the north–west European seaboard, in Normandy, Brittany and around the coastlines of the British Isles, especially in Wales, Scotland and Ireland. Many are known in southwest England, particularly in Cornwall and its neighbouring county, Devon. Two have been identified immediately west of Cornwall, in the Isles of Scilly.

Carn Brea may refer to several places:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Outline of Cornwall</span> Overview of and topical guide to Cornwall

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Cornwall: Cornwall – ceremonial county and unitary authority area of England within the United Kingdom. Cornwall is a peninsula bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall is also a royal duchy of the United Kingdom. It has an estimated population of half a million and it has its own distinctive history and culture.

Presented below is an alphabetical index of articles related to Cornwall:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lesingey Round</span>

Lesingey Round is a ringfort, a smaller type of hillfort, about 1 mile (1.6 km) west of Penzance, in Cornwall, England. It is a scheduled monument.

References

  1. ↑ http://www.parow.org.uk/BartinneyCastle.htm Archived 2008-11-22 at the Wayback Machine PAROW Penwith Access and Rights of Way.
  2. ↑ "Geograph:: Trig point within Bartine Castle,... © Jim Champion cc-by-sa/2.0".
  3. ↑ http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?thold=5&mode=flat&order=0&sid=12327 The Megalithic Portal
  4. ↑ Weatherhill, Craig. Belerion. (page 34) 1981. ISBN   0-906720-01-X
  5. ↑ http://west-penwith.org.uk/just4.htm from Polsue, Joseph. A complete parochial history of the county of Cornwall; William Lake, Truro & John Camden Hotten, London: 1867–72. ISBN   0-85409-539-X Local Parish records.
  6. ↑ 1995iv Cheryl Straffon, ‘Cornish sites and their names’, Meyn Mamvro 29: 12-13
  7. ↑ https://sites.google.com/site/lookingforthegoodinit/ogham/t-tinne-holly%5B%5D

50°06′23″N5°38′46″W / 50.106474°N 5.645986°W / 50.106474; -5.645986

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.