Prehistoric West Penwith

One of my favourite parts of Cornwall is the National Landscape of Penwith, with its ancient walls, megaliths and abandoned mines. This time was the first that we have been in really nice weather, which allowed a full appreciation of the extent of this historic landscape. The walls are just fabulous. 

Female Stone Chat with nesting material.

From the roadside parking near Bosullow, a lane leads northeast and Men an Tol is signed off it. The lane sides were purple with violets. Nice to see a Small Copper too.

The walls contain huge basal stones and date back over 4000 years. 

The walls create on of Europe's oldest agricultural landscapes.

Rust staining.

Abandoned farmhouse.

A favourite wall.

Men an Tol - apparently Bronze Age. Traditional beliefs link the holed stone to curing various illnesses and is thought to be part of a stone circle. 

This time we were able to follow a dry path across to the wonderfully named Ding Dong mine. 

Looking across to St Michael's Mount with The Lizard in the far distance.

From Ding Dong mine we headed along the track that heads towards Boskednan Mine (above)  and took a left hand turn along a footpath that follows the wall along to Nine Maidens standing stones. There were many, many furry caterpillars, mainly Drinker Moths, along the way and it was no coincidence that it was here we heard our first Cuckoo of the year. 

Part of the Nine Maidens stone circle. 

From here we headed over to Carn Galva ...and that's another story...and after that we popped in to see Lanyon Quoit ...which fits into the theme of this blog rather than the next ...

Lanyon Quoit Dolmen, with Carn Galva to the left and Ding Dong mine to the right.