Early Settlement at Carn Euny

The prominent grass-covered ruins at Carn Euny date from the last phases of the settlement. Beneath them, archaeologists have discovered the remains of an earlier Iron Age village.

An early Iron Age round house from one of the initial phases of occupation at Carn Euny (House A1).The walls were built of turf or wattle daubed with clay, and the roofs were probably covered with thatch or turf, supported on timber posts. The longer grass around the house shows the line of the drainage gully. (Drawing by Judith Dobie.) (c) English Heritage The first traces of settlement on the site date from the 5th century BC. For some 500 years, the village was formed of relatively simple Iron Age 'round houses'. These have now completely disappeared - with only the circular drainage gullies and postholes surviving, to be excavated by archaeologists in the 1960s.

As part of this early settlement, a remarkable underground stone chamber with an entrance passage was built. This distinct type of monument, found only in the far west of Cornwall, is known as a 'fogou', deriving from the Cornish word 'ogo' meaning cave.

The Fogou was extended and rebuilt in three different phases during the Iron Age and Romano-British Period © English Heritage The original function of the fogou is unclear. It may have been used as a place of refuge, or perhaps as a cellar for cold storage. Alternatively the presence of certain features, such as the niche at the back of the chamber, point to some kind of ritual significance. The fogou was discovered in the 1840s by miners prospecting for tin. It was excavated in the 1860s by the Cornish antiquary W. C. Borlase (1848-99).