View SE at entrance passage & gateway through the inner rampart of Chun Castle Iron Age ring fort (fortified settlement) Morvah, Cornwall, England, UK
View SE at entrance passage & gateway through the inner rampart of Chun Castle Iron Age ring fort, Morvah, Cornwall, England, UK. A fortified hilltop settlement consisting of two circular concentric stone ramparts each with an external ditch. Inside the fort (rear) several phases of buildings stood in a circle around a central open space. A well survives in the NNE part of the courtyard with the site of a large furnace close by: tin & iron slag were found during excavations. The inner wall probably stood to around 20ft, the outer wall to at least 10ft, but the site was used as a quarry for building stone in the C19thAD. The fort began in the mid to late 1st millenniun BC, the main period of occupation being from C3rdBC-C1stAD with re-occupation in the C5th-6thAD. The original entrance was straight through both ramparts & aligned on Chun Quoit Neolithic tomb some 250m to the W. At a later stage the outer gate was blocked & moved to the SW to create a more secure staggered entrance protected by an outwork. The site sits on the summit of Chun Downs beside an ancient ridgeway linking the tin mining areas around St Just to the trading ports at the Hayle estuary & St Michael's Mount. The location & defensive strength of the fort, & the use of furnaces in its courtyard, suggest the inhabitants were involved in the lucrative tin trade.
Size: 3741px × 4961px
Location: Chun Castle Fort, Morvah, St Just, West Penwith, Cornwall, England, UK
Photo credit: © Mick Sharp / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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