Carn Euny

Carn Euny is the remains of a settlement dating from the Iron Age into the Romano-British period. There are several buildings consisting of a dry stone wall around an open courtyard with a dwelling house built into the wall opposite the entrance with lean-to structures along either side. Adjoining the one of the courtyard houses is a fogou. The site is east from Landsend north of the A30 at Crows-an-Wra. The site can be reached by road with lay-by car parking at Brane and then on foot via a public footpath.

Our visit

This is an impressive site. The period of occupation appears to have stretched from the Bronze Age to about 400 AD. The remains of four interlocking houses with courtyards and a number of stone built roundhouses were built in the 1st century BC. In Craig Weatherhill's book 'Cornovia Ancient Sites of Cornwall & Scilly 4000 BC – 1000AD', he points to these structures replacing a timber built settlement that was 400 years older. There is a fogou leading from the most northern of the houses. This fogou is truly impressive and has a main chamber 20m long. There is a passage at its north end leading to a circular corbelled room standing 2.4m high. At the southern end of the fogou is a tunnel leading to the surface. Craig Weatherhill points to the fogou being built in successive phases with the corbelled chamber part of the first phase c. 500BC.

If you go north east of Carn Euny, Carn Bran hill fort stands on top of the hill. Carn Euny settlement is a very important site with significant remains. A visit is recommended and we were very impressed.