place

Caer Bran

Buildings and structures in CornwallCornish cultureHill forts in CornwallHistory of CornwallIron Age sites in Cornwall
PenwithPrehistoric sites in Cornwall
Caer Bran geograph.org.uk 33414
Caer Bran geograph.org.uk 33414

Caer Bran Hill Fort is an archaeological site near Sancreed and Carn Euny Iron Age village, on the Penwith peninsula in Cornwall.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Caer Bran (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 50.104667 ° E -5.627 °
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Address

Caer Bran

A30
TR19 6EQ , Sancreed
England, United Kingdom
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linkWikiData (Q5016858)
linkOpenStreetMap (351968333)

Caer Bran geograph.org.uk 33414
Caer Bran geograph.org.uk 33414
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Nearby Places

Sancreed Parish Church
Sancreed Parish Church

Sancreed Parish Church is the parish church of Sancreed, Cornwall, England, UK. It is an Anglican church in the Diocese of Truro. Sancreed Parish church (Grade II Listed) lies at the heart of the village and is dedicated to St Sancredus. The church is built of granite, parts of which date back to the 13th and 14th-centuries which was originally built in a cruciform shape. The current church has an unbuttressed west tower of two stages, a north transept and a 15th-century south aisle of five bays. Features of interest include the fine font which is of the St Ives type dating from the 14th-century and the rood screen which has curious carvings at the base. Much of the church was restored in 1881 by the architect J D Sedding and the contractor, Mr Bone of Liskeard. A report in The Cornishman newspaper stated, There was nothing striking about the old Church except its hoary and depressing appearance. It contained a few pieces of good carved work, which doubtless will be utilized in the restoration, but very few other specimens of art. The churchyard and church have, within the late 19th and first part of the 20th-century, made a strong appeal to painters of the Newlyn School of Art, some of whom worshipped regularly at the church and are buried in the churchyard (including Stanhope Forbes RA). Work on replacing the church roof began in 2017 following a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund of £227,100 and more than £11,000 from charities.

Bartinney Castle
Bartinney Castle

Bartinney Castle is an Iron Age enclosure located in the Penwith Peninsula of Southwest Cornwall, England, it is surrounded by a circular earthwork standing on a hill surrounded by various archaeological prehistoric remains, including ancient settlements, field systems, tumuli and cairns. One mile to the southwest is Carn Brea, the westernmost hill in Britain; and a mile to the southeast is Carn Euny Iron Age village and fogou, and the neighbouring Caer Bran hillfort and Sancreed Beacon.On the hilltop are the remains of a circular bank, about 250 feet across, and an encircling ditch. This bank may have been much higher and there are suggestions the site could have been a sacred enclosure or Plen an Gwarry, which was a type of amphitheatre with rows of stone seats where feast days or fire festivals celebrating the Celtic solar god, Belenos, were held or where mystery plays were staged. Other theories suggest a large disc barrow or an unfinished hill fort; the outer wall is not high enough to have been of any defensive value. In the centre of the enclosure are three smaller circles arranged in a triangle, originally made of contiguous stones which have since been removed. The largest of these is forty feet in diameter; the other two are about 25 and 30 feet across.Local parish records suggest that Bartinney Castle was the site of a Celtic fire festival marking the harvest or Samhain, the Celtic New Year's Day. The name Bartinè signifies the lighted eminence, or the hill of fires (Cornish - Bretanow). The Druids, it is said, had their fires on the eve of November, when the people were obliged to resort and re-kindle the private fires in their houses from the consecrated fires of the Druids, the domestic fire having been first carefully extinguished. On Midsummer's Day, in recent times, the inhabitants, of this parish were greeted with sounds resembling the discharge of musketry in different directions, proceeding from holes bored in rocks, which being charged with powder were exploded in succession; and on the same day a new flag was displayed on every mine, and the night was ushered in with noisy festivities, and bonfires blazing on many of the hills.The name may also be derived from Tinne, the Druid name for the holly tree, the burning of which was associated with the death of the old year and the coming of the new one on Samhain or 31 October. Tinne also means a metal ingot or iron bar according to the Bríatharogam.