Annie Elwes investigates the ruins of Carn Euny.
This is a strange place, particularly when viewed from the air, because we’re so used to seeing ruins in squares or rectangles, but ancient man had no such love of angles.
Higgledy-piggledy foundations of 2nd- to 4th-century stone huts can be seen at Carn Euny, near Sancreed on the Penwith peninsula, abandoned in the late-Roman period.
Carn Euny pictured from the air by a Historic England Staff Photographer.
The settlement boasts an Iron Age underground tunnel, 65ft long, called a ‘fogou’ and particular to far-west Cornwall.
Above all, Carn Euny is a mystery. No one knows what it was for, but the care that went into its construction reveals its importance.
