Chapel Carn Brea | |
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View from Chapel Carn Brea towards St Levan | |
Highest point | |
Elevation | 198 m (650 ft) |
Prominence | 30 m (98 ft) [1] |
Parent peak | Watch Croft |
Listing | Tump |
Coordinates | 50°05′38″N5°39′25″W / 50.094°N 5.657°W |
Geography | |
Location | Penwith, Cornwall, UK |
OS grid | SW385280 |
Topo map | OS Landranger 203 |
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. [2]
Chapel Carn Brea is often described as the first hill in Cornwall (from a westerly perspective) and rises 198 metres (650 ft) above sea level.
The hill is an important historical site showing evidence of neolithic and early Bronze Age activity, as well as the remains of the thirteenth century chapel from which it is named. On the slopes and summit there were once eleven barrows, but only seven now remain, mostly in a poor state. To the west of the summit is an early neolithic long cairn with dimensions of 11 metres (36 ft) long and built within a natural granite outcrop which extends it length by 26 metres (85 ft). [3]
On the summit is a 9 metres (30 ft) diameter entrance grave (also known as chambered cairn) which had a south-facing entrance and was built in the late neolithic. The chamber was 2.7 metres (8.9 ft) long, 1.1 metres (3.6 ft) wide and 1.2 metres (3.9 ft) high. This type of cairn is unique to west Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, and consist of a long narrow chamber covered with large slabs and surrounded with a kerb of large stones; they are thought to be communal burial places. The entrance grave was later covered by a large cairn 4.6 metres (15 ft) high and 19 metres (62 ft) across with three concentric retaining walls and a secondary cist. [3] The chapel, which was built on top of the cairn, was pulled down in 1816 and was said to be the home of holy men or monks. A manuscript from 1396 kept at the County Records Office, Truro records the ′beaconage′ received from fishermen for the burning an ′ecclesiastical light′, normally a brazier or fire basket at the ″Chapel of St Michael of Bree″. [4] This is the earliest record of a navigational light in Cornwall. In 1868 and 1879 William Copeland Borlase excavated the site and built a new cairn which was destroyed by the building of a Second World War radar observation post, which was manned by the Royal Air Force. [3] A plaque, near the car park is dedicated to those that served there. [5]
The Old Cornwall Society continues to light a beacon fire for the summer solstice on 23 June each year. [5]
A cairn is a human-made pile of stones raised for a purpose, usually as a marker or as a burial mound. The word cairn comes from the Scottish Gaelic: càrn.
Carn Euny is an archaeological site near Sancreed, on the Penwith peninsula in Cornwall, United Kingdom with considerable evidence of both Iron Age and post-Iron Age settlement. Excavations on this site have shown that there was activity at Carn Euny as early as the Neolithic period. There is evidence that shows that the first timber huts there were built about 200 BC, but by the 1st century BC, these had been replaced by stone huts. The remains of these stone huts are still visible today.
Entrance grave is a type of Neolithic and early Bronze Age chamber tomb found primarily in Great Britain. The burial monument typically consisted of a circular mound bordered by a stone curb, erected over a rectangular burial chamber and accessed by a narrow, stone lined entrance. Entrance graves have been discovered in the Isles of Scilly, west Cornwall, southeast Ireland, southwest Scotland, Brittany and the Channel Islands. They are often referred to as the Scillonian Group, named for the Scillonian Islands where the majority of entrance graves have been discovered.
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.
A tor enclosure is a prehistoric monument found in the southwestern part of Great Britain. These monuments emerged around 4000 BCE in the early Neolithic.
Bant's Carn is a Bronze Age entrance grave located on a steep slope on the island of St Mary's in the Isles of Scilly, England. The tomb is one of the best examples of a Scillonian entrance grave. Below Bant's Carn, lies the remains of the Iron Age village of Halangy Down.
Porth Hellick Down is a Neolithic and Bronze Age archeological site located on the island of St Mary's, in the Isles of Scilly in Great Britain. The ancient burial monument encompasses a large cairn cemetery that includes at least six entrance graves, other unchambered cairns, and a prehistoric field system. The site is notable for having the largest assembly of surviving entrance graves.
Sancreed is a village and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, approximately three miles (5 km) west of Penzance.
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.
Clermont Carn, also known as Black Mountain, is a mountain that rises to 510 metres (1,670 ft) in the Cooley Mountains of County Louth, Ireland. It is at the border with Northern Ireland, and is also the location of the Clermont Carn transmission site. The mountain's name refers to an ancient burial cairn on its summit, and to Lord Clermont of Ravensdale.
Rough Tor, or Roughtor, is a tor on Bodmin Moor, Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The site is composed of the tor summit and logan stone, a neolithic tor enclosure, a large number of Bronze Age hut circles, and some contemporary monuments.
Four Lanes is a village in west Cornwall, England, United Kingdom approximately 3 miles (4.8 km) south of Redruth at grid reference SW 689 386 in the civil parish of Carn Brea.
Zennor Quoit is a ruined megalithic burial chamber or dolmen, located on a moor about a mile (1.6 km) east of the village of Zennor, Cornwall, England, UK. It dates to 2500–1500 BC. Aside from the 12.5-tonne (12,500 kg) roof, which collapsed some time between 1770 and 1865, the chamber is in good condition.
Showery Tor is a rocky outcrop on a ridge-top approximately 0.6 kilometres (0.37 mi) north of the Rough Tor summit, near Camelford on Bodmin Moor in Cornwall. It is notable for its rock formations and prehistoric monuments.
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.
Brane Barrow, or Chapel Euny Barrow, is a Neolithic entrance grave located near the hamlet of Brane, Cornwall, England, UK. It is considered to be one of the smallest and best preserved burial monuments in Britain.
Carn Brea may refer to several places: