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Summary

Probable Iron Age terraces near the courtyard house settlement at Bosrigan West still survive.

Protected Status: None recorded

Other References/Statuses

• Cornwall SURVEY NAME (temporary): NT
• OS No. (OS Quarter-sheet and OS No.): SW43NW 8
• Primary Record No. (1985-2009): 33201
• SMR No. (OS Quarter-sheet and SMR No.): SW43NW 60

Monument Type(s):

• LYNCHET (Iron Age - 800 BC to 42 AD)
• LYNCHET (Romano British - 43 AD to 409 AD)

Full description

Russell in 1971 lists terraces near the courtyard house settlement at Bosrigan West (30696) (b3) which had been mentioned by Hirst (b1-2). Pool and Weatherhill in 1979 noted that fairly well marked terraces of probable Iron Age date can be seen to the north of the settlement (b4) and Weatherhill in 1982 describes low terraces, mostly utilised by modern field walls generally following the contour. Courtyard houses 30696.1-.3 stand on one terrace and 30696.4 on the terrace above (h1, b5). The field system was surveyed at 1:1250 by the National Trust in 1982 (h2, b6-8) and visited by Herring in 1986 (h3, b9). The survey confirmed that the courtyard house settlement (30696) is set within and apparently contemporary with an impressive radial field system comprising six contour hugging, essentially concentric curving primary lines focused on the settlement. These primary lines are marked by heavy lynchets up to 2.2m high most of which have been revetted and incorporated into modern field boundaries. Some, especially to the north at the edge of the coastal plateau, survive as unfossilised lynchets. The primary line contained smaller roughly rectangular fields defined by simple segmenting boundaries perpendicular to the primary lines. It appears likely that the field system expanded northwards to from a core around the settlement; the northern primary lines are less regular and are clearly attached to the main system. Further north again, on the higher slopes of the cliff are three separate bundles of irregular fields attached to the main system (33201.1-.3). Clearance heaps (33201.4) of small stones are found throughout the system but mainly in the smaller northern fields, those of which were not reused in medieval and post medieval times (b9).

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Site history:
1: 1975. WEATHERHILL, C / CCRA
2: 1982. NDJ ET AL / CCRA, NT
3: 1986. HERRING, PC / CAU
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<1> Hirst, FC, 19--, Archaeological Notes on West Penwith (Unpublished document). SCO3593.

<2> Hirst, FC, 1937, Courtyard House Sites in West Cornwall, 84N, 97 (Bibliographic reference). SCO3594.

<3> Russell, V, 1971, West Penwith Survey, 69 (Bibliographic reference). SCO4314.

<4> Pool, PAS & Weatherhill, C, 1979, A Report to the National Trust: Iron Age Sites at Bosigran (Bibliographic reference). SCO5141.

<5> Weatherhill, C, 1982, Courtyard Houses of West Penwith. A Survey, 22-24 (Bibliographic reference). SCO5029.

<6> Cornwall Archaeological Unit, Field Drawing (GRE), GRE 214, 5, 11 (Cartographic materials). SCO5089.

<7> Cornwall Archaeological Unit, 198-, Drawing Archive, Hanging (GRH), GRH 683, SW4136NE, 4137NE, 4236NW, 4237SW (Cartographic materials). SCO5088.

<8> CAU, 1984, Field Survey Context Card (Bibliographic reference). SCO5175.

<9> Herring, PC, 1987, Bosigran, Zennor, 109-111, FIG 28 (Bibliographic reference). SCO3569.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events: none recorded

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