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Ancient Britain, Camborne (2026)

01/09/2026

St Nectan’s Glen, near Tintagel in north Cornwall, is one of Cornwall’s most atmospheric natural sites. The River Trevillet has carved its way through Late Devonian slate, creating the spectacular 60-foot waterfall known as St Nectan’s Kieve, where the water plunges through a natural opening in the rock.

The glen is surrounded by ancient woodland, moss-covered cliffs and smaller waterfalls, giving the place a wonderfully mysterious atmosphere.
The site is also wrapped in legends of St Nectan, a supposed 5th/6th-century holy man, as well as later Arthurian and fairy folklore. However, some of the strongest claims connecting the saint directly with this particular waterfall appear to be later traditions rather than securely established history.

A beautiful place where Cornish landscape, legend and history come together.

31/08/2026

St Winnow Church, Cornwall – A Thousand Years of History
Hidden beside the River Fowey, St Winnow Church is one of Cornwall’s fascinating medieval churches, standing on a site with a long religious history.
The dedication is traditionally associated with St Winnoc, a Breton saint whose cult is believed to have reached Cornwall during the early medieval period. Although little can be said with certainty about the earliest religious building here, the present church preserves important evidence of a Norman foundation.
Parts of the north walls of the nave, chancel and north transept contain Norman fabric, while the building was substantially altered and rebuilt during the 13th and 15th centuries. The impressive south aisle, porch and tower are largely 15th-century work.
Inside, the church contains some remarkable survivals. Perhaps the most impressive is the rood screen, dating to around 1520. Its elaborate carving and Perpendicular tracery give us a glimpse of the richness of late-medieval Cornish churches before the Reformation transformed religious life.
There is also a 15th-century granite font, a beautifully carved early 17th-century oak pulpit, medieval stained glass and a collection of carved medieval bench ends. Some depict surprisingly detailed figures, including a Cornishman and an elaborate ship.
Particularly interesting is the ancient glass, including fragments associated with the Lords of Ethy Chantry, for whom the south aisle was built. The church therefore wasn't simply a place of worship — it was also connected with the wealthier medieval families of the surrounding landscape.
St Winnow was restored in the 19th and early 20th centuries, but enough of its medieval fabric and furnishings survive to make it an exceptional example of Cornwall's ecclesiastical heritage.
Today, surrounded by the quiet landscape of the Fowey valley, it is easy to imagine the generations of Cornish people who have worshipped here for centuries.
A remarkable survivor of medieval Cornwall.

31/08/2026

THE MERRY MAIDENS & BOSCAWEN-ÛN

West Cornwall is home to some truly magical prehistoric sites, including the Merry Maidens and Boscawen-Ûn stone circles.
The Merry Maidens is a beautifully preserved circle of 19 granite stones, dating back thousands of years to the Neolithic or Bronze Age. Local legend says the stones were once 19 maidens who were turned to stone for dancing on a Sunday. Two nearby standing stones are known as The Pipers, supposedly the musicians who played for them!

Boscawen-Ûn, hidden in the Cornish landscape nearby, is another remarkable circle of 19 stones, with a large leaning stone at its centre and a striking white quartz stone among the circle.
We may never know exactly why these ancient people built these circles or what ceremonies took place here. But standing among the stones today, it’s incredible to think that people were gathering in this landscape thousands of years ago.

Have you visited either of these fascinating places?

30/08/2026

Avebury Henge Ditch

The Avebury ditch is one of the most impressive surviving features of the Avebury prehistoric monument in Wiltshire. Dug around 3000 BC, during the Neolithic period, it originally formed a huge circular enclosure surrounding the stone circles.
What makes the ditch particularly remarkable is its enormous scale. In places it is around 9 metres deep, with the material excavated from it creating the bank on the outside.
Unlike many henges, Avebury's ditch lies inside the bank. This would have created a dramatic enclosed space, with the huge bank and ditch separating the monument from the surrounding landscape.
The sheer amount of labour involved in digging it would have been enormous, suggesting that Avebury was not simply a stone circle but a major ceremonial centre, where communities may have gathered for rituals, feasting and other activities.
Today, the ditch is still one of the best ways to appreciate just how monumental Avebury must have been over 5,000 years ago.

30/08/2026

WAYLAND’S SMITHY – A MYSTERY OF THE NEOLITHIC

Hidden on the Ridgeway in Oxfordshire is Wayland’s Smithy, one of Britain’s most fascinating prehistoric monuments.
Built around 5,500 years ago, during the Neolithic period, the site began as a long barrow containing human burials. A later stone chamber was constructed at the eastern end, using enormous sarsen stones.
Archaeologists have discovered the remains of at least 14 people within the earlier monument, giving us a rare glimpse into the burial practices of prehistoric communities.
But the site’s name is much later. According to legend, the mound was the workshop of Wayland the Smith, the mythical Anglo-Saxon/Germanic smith who was said to forge magical weapons and horseshoes.
Even today, standing among these ancient stones, it is hard not to wonder what ceremonies took place here thousands of years ago.

30/08/2026

BOSILIACK – A LANDSCAPE OF ANCIENT CORNWALL

High on the moors of West Penwith lies the remarkable prehistoric landscape of Bosiliack — a place where people lived, farmed and buried their dead thousands of years ago.
The Bosiliack settlement contains the remains of at least 13 Bronze Age roundhouses, surrounded by ancient fields, clearance cairns and boundaries. Evidence suggests that parts of the settlement were occupied again during the Iron Age, showing that this was a landscape used for generations.
Nearby stands the Bosiliack entrance grave, a small Early Bronze Age/Neolithic chambered tomb. Excavated in 1984, it contained cremated human remains and pottery. Radiocarbon dating placed the cremation at around 1690–1500 BC. The tomb was subsequently reconstructed.
And not far away are the enigmatic Boskednan Nine Maidens — a prehistoric stone circle whose surviving stones form part of another ancient ritual landscape. Together with nearby monuments such as Mên Scryfa and other prehistoric remains, they give us a glimpse of just how densely occupied and monument-rich West Penwith once was.
From homes and fields to burial chambers and standing stones, Bosiliack and the surrounding moors preserve an extraordinary story of prehistoric Cornwall.

30/08/2026

Barclodiad y Gawres – Anglesey’s Mysterious Neolithic Tomb

Hidden on the west coast of Anglesey, Barclodiad y Gawres is one of Wales’ most remarkable Neolithic burial chambers, dating to around 3000 BC.
The name means “The Giantess’s Apronful”, reflecting the legends that surround this ancient monument.
Inside the chamber are some extraordinary carved stones, including geometric patterns and motifs that are rare in prehistoric Britain. Excavations also revealed evidence of a hearth, animal remains and human burials, suggesting that this was more than simply a tomb—it may have been a place of ritual and ceremony.
The monument would have been built by farming communities over 5,000 years ago, using huge stones that were transported and carefully arranged without modern machinery.
Today, Barclodiad y Gawres gives us a fascinating glimpse into the beliefs and traditions of the people who lived on Anglesey thousands of years ago.

30/08/2026

Apparently there has been a cliff collapse at Holywell Bay so this isn't going to be on show for awhile?

29/08/2026

THE HURLERS & STOWE’S POUND – ANCIENT BODMIN MOOR

High on Bodmin Moor, near Minions, lies one of Cornwall’s most remarkable prehistoric landscapes — The Hurlers and Stowe’s Pound.
The Hurlers are actually three large stone circles, built during the Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age. Their unusual grouping is considered unique in England, with the circles arranged along a north-east to south-west line. The central circle alone originally contained around 28 stones.
Nearby stand two isolated stones known as The Pipers. Local legend says the Hurlers were men turned to stone for playing hurling on a Sunday, while the Pipers were the musicians who played for them! The legend was already being recorded by the 17th century.
Climb towards Stowe’s Hill and you reach Stowe’s Pound, a huge prehistoric enclosure incorporating the natural granite landscape. The hill contains evidence of ancient settlement, including numerous house platforms and funerary cairns. The enclosure was later reused as a medieval animal pound — giving it the name we know today.
Together, these monuments form part of an extraordinary prehistoric landscape of stone circles, burial monuments, settlements and ancient enclosures.
Perhaps the most fascinating thing is that we still don't know exactly what ceremonies took place here. Thousands of years later, the stones remain — but the people who built them have left us only clues.
Bodmin Moor still holds some of Cornwall’s greatest prehistoric mysteries.

26/08/2026

The Henley Hoard – Iron Age Gold from Britain

The Henley Hoard is one of the fascinating Iron Age coin discoveries from southern Britain. It consists of 32 Celtic gold staters, discovered near Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire.
The coins date to around 55–45 BC, placing them in the turbulent period just before and around Julius Caesar’s expeditions to Britain.
They are associated with the Atrebates, a powerful Iron Age people whose territory stretched across parts of modern-day southern England. The coins were probably produced at or around Silchester, one of the major centres of the Atrebates.
What makes the discovery particularly unusual is that the coins had been concealed inside a hollow flint nodule. Deliberately burying valuable objects was not uncommon in Iron Age Britain, although the exact reasons remain uncertain. The hoard may have represented wealth being hidden for safekeeping, a deliberate offering, or something connected with the beliefs and rituals of the time.
The coins themselves carry striking Celtic imagery, including a horse and wheel, designs ultimately influenced by Mediterranean coinage but transformed into a distinctly British Iron Age style.
Over 2,000 years later, the Henley Hoard gives us a remarkable glimpse into wealth, trade, power and belief in Iron Age Britain.

Ancient Britain

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