On a clear day you can see the engine house of Ding Dong Mine ahead and the highest points in West Penwith: rocky Carn Galver to its left and slightly higher Watch Croft to the left of Carn Galver. As you descend the hill there is also a view of St Michael's Mount to the right.
The mineshafts beside the footpath are the remains of a mine known as Wheal Argus which operated between 1873 and 1875, producing about 20 tonnes of black tin and included an engine house. Although there is little documentation, there are suggestions of earlier mining activity on the site.
The churchyard at Sancreed is an almost perfectly circular enclosure situated at the head of a valley. This is characteristic of an early Celtic religious settlement and a 6th century inscribed stone indicates that it had been established by this point.
The first church recorded in the churchyard was in 1150 as Eglossant when it was given Tewkesbury Abbey. The current church was initially constructed in the 13th Century, the tower was added in the 14th Century and was reworked in the 15th Century. Like most Cornish churches it was restored in the 19th Century.
There are five mediaeval crosses in the churchyard, salvaged from various locations nearby. The shaft of a 10th Century cross was found built into the church wall and its head was on top of the hedge. Another was rescued from a local farm where it was about to be used as part of a stone wall.
The ruins of Sancreed holy well and chapel were rediscovered in 1879 and the well was restored. At least one of the stones within the holy well structure was originally part of the mediaeval chapel which is thought to date from around the 15th-16th Century. A mediaeval stone arch that was originally the top of a window or door is leaning against the chapel wall.
The walk continues over the stile into the field, but first you may want to see the Holy Well (a couple of minutes walk) then return here.
After crossing the stile, bear right slightly across the field towards the cottage to reach a stile on the far side.
The pieces of ribbon tied to a tree beside the well may initially appear to be New Age pollution but are in fact a Celtic tradition dating back to pre-Christian times. For example, Christ's Well at Mentieth was described in 1618 as "all tapestried about with old rags".
It was thought that an ailment could be cured by dipping a piece of fabric in the well and hanging it on a sacred tree beside the well. As the fabric rotted away, the illness was supposed to disappear. The wells were known as cloughtie wells based on clout - the archaic word for item of clothing - as in the saying "never cast a clout till May is out". Documented examples of cloughtie wells include the holy wells at Sancreed and Madron. This can also be seen at other holy wells such as St Clether, but how much of this is modern emulation and whether a suitable sacred tree species grew beside these wells in Celtic times is not known.
Unfortunately most modern ribbons are made of polyester which does not rot and remains in the environment a long time where it can be hazardous to wildlife. If you are planning to tie a ribbon, make sure it's a natural fibre or rayon (aka Viscose) which is plant cellulose and can be broken down by micro-organisms.
The settlement of Newham was first recorded in 1331 as Nyweham. It probably dates from after the Norman Conquest as the name is mediaeval English rather than Cornish and simply means "new home".
Ribwort plantain is a common weed on cultivated land with long leaves and unmistakable black seed heads on the end of tall stalks often with a halo of white flowers. Generations of children have worked out that by knotting the stem, the seed head can be launched as a projectile at unsuspecting adults.
A tea made from the leaves is a popular herbal remedy but care should be taken where the plant is harvested as it is not only highly tolerant of high metal levels in the soil but also accumulates these. It will even tolerate and accumulate arsenic which is normally toxic to plants. It therefore has the potential to be used for cleansing soils contaminated with mine waste.
The -wort in plant names derives from the Old English word wyrt, which simply meant plant. Wurzel - the German word for root - also has the same ancestry. In mediaeval times, -wort was often used for the names of plants reputed to be medicinal, prefixed by the ailment that the plant was supposed to cure (e.g. woundwort).
In fields used for grazing, docks are not necessarily a problem. Their deep roots help to hold the soil together and they provide a good source of minerals (such as selenium and zinc) for livestock. Their bitterness is due to tannins, which are also helpful to livestock for preventing bloat and parasites.
The biggest discrepancy between distance shown in fitness apps and true distance on the ground comes from an app trying to measure distance by accumulating GPS positions. Since each GPS reading on a consumer device contains several metres of error, the accumulation of errors over the whole walk causes an overestimation of distance of around 10-20%. By contrast, the iWalk Cornwall app gives a more accurate measure of distance along the route because it already knows the exact route in advance so it doesn't need to accumulate GPS positions to measure distance along the route. Some locals might choose to summarise this as: "it's because the fitness app is an emmet".
Yellow archangel is a native plant and member of the dead nettle family (and it's also known as the Golden Dead Nettle). The flowers are pale yellow, hence the first part of the name. The second part of the name (including the angelic association) is because it looks quite like a nettle but doesn't sting.
Since the 1970s, a variegated garden variety of yellow archangel (sometimes known as "aluminium plant" due to silvery metallic areas on its leaves) has escaped into the wild where it is spreading rapidly, particularly in the Southwest. It can propagate from a small piece of creeping stem and also produces several hundred seeds. Once established, it forms dense carpets in shady areas which exclude other plants. It has been deemed so invasive that it is now illegal to introduced it into the wild.
The tall trees on the right provide some good perches for crows to survey the landscape.
Research has shown that crows have a much higher density of neurons in their forebrains than primates do (the density of neurons in this region is thought to correlate with intelligence).
The brain of a crow accounts for 2.7 percent of the bird's overall weight whereas an adult human's brain represents 1.9 percent of their body weight. This is even more impressive when considered in context: birds need to be as light as possible in order to fly.
Ravens are considered the most intelligent crow species, outperforming chimpanzees in some tests. Consequently an academic is quoted as saying that crows are "smarter than many undergraduates, but probably not as smart as ravens."
The ruined farm is known as Boswarthen. The settlement was first recorded in 1284, spelt Bosewarthen. The Cornish word for dwelling - bos - implies that it dates from early mediaeval times (Dark Ages).
Rabbits have a number of wild predators including foxes, polecats and stoats. Buzzards and weasels will also take young ones. Domestic cats are also capable of tackling a full-grown rabbit. Rabbits have evolved to be able to detect predators early and then run very fast. The location of their eyes on the sides of the their head gives them almost 360 degree vision and they can also can turn their ears 180 degrees to pinpoint the location of a sound.
Buzzards are not quiet birds! Their long, loud "pieeuuu" call can be often be the first thing to give away their presence and is one of the easiest bird calls to remember. It is thought that the original Latin word for buzzard was probably an onomatopoeia (i.e. an imitation of the bird's call) within the constraints of what was deemed an acceptable Latin word (suggesting "pieeuuu" would probably have resulted in being fed to the lions!).
The name "daisy" is thought to be a corruption of "day's eye" (or "eye of the day", as Chaucer called it). The name comes about because the flower head closes at night and opens each morning. In mediaeval times, it was known as "Mary's Rose".
Cows are thought to have been domesticated in the Middle East around 8,500 BC. By about 6,400 BC they were being traded into Neolithic Europe. This is just about the point where the land bridge between Britain and Continental Europe (known as Doggerland) flooded with rising sea levels, so the first few cattle may have just managed to walk across.
The cattle breeds known as Devon were also the traditional breeds used in Cornwall until recent years. The South Devon breed, affectionately known as "Orange Elephant" or "Gentle Giant", is the largest of the British native breeds: the largest recorded bull weighed 2 tonnes. They are thought to have descended from the large red cattle of Normandy, which were imported during the Norman invasion of England. The other breed, known as "Devon Ruby" or "Red Ruby" (due to their less orange colouration), is one of the oldest breeds in existence, with origins thought to be from pre-Roman Celtic Britain.
There are over four hundred complete stone crosses in Cornwall and at least another two hundred fragments.
Crosses were sometimes used to mark sites of chapels and holy wells or as a signpost for the tracks that led to them. Often churches were later built at this holy site, resulting in the cross being within the churchyard or close by.
The church tower that you can see quite clearly to the left is St Buryan, roughly 2 miles away.
The church tower in the distance more-or-less directly ahead is Sennen, just under 4 miles away.
The large hill is Chapel Carn Brea.
Chapel Carn Brea is Britain's westernmost hill. Its geographical position has resulted in it being used as a WW2 lookout and for a navigational/warning beacon before this but the symbolic value of its location has also featured in its history.
On the slopes and summit of the hill are a number of burial sites dating from the Neolithic and Bronze Age periods. A long barrow on the slopes is particularly old, dating from the Early Neolithic. The structure on the summit, known as an entrance grave, is a Late Neolithic design found only in Penwith and the Isles of Scilly and would have originally been covered by a huge mound.
The hill is named after a 13th Century chapel which was erected on top of the prehistoric burial site on the summit but was little more than rubble by the 19th Century.
The settlement of Brane was first recorded in 1323 as Bosvran. The bos is the Cornish word for dwelling, and the rest of the name refers to the Caer Bran hillfort.
In farms around Cornwall, harvest was celebrated with traditions such as "crying the neck".
Neck - a miniature sheaf of wheat with four plaited arms, intertwined with everlastings and the more durable of flowers. The stalks of wheat brought down by the last sweep of the scythe are brought home in thankful triumph, and woven as described. In the evening, the sheaf or zang is taken into the mowhay, where are assembled all the harvest party.
A stout-lunged reaper proclaims: "I hav'en! I hav'en! I hav'en!"
Another loud voice questions: "What hav'ee? What hav'ee? What hav'ee?"
"A neck! A neck! A neck!" is the reply;
and the crowd take up, in their lustiest tones, a chorus of "Wurrah".General merriment follows and the draughts of ale and cider are often deep. The neck may be seen hanging to the beam of many of our farm-houses between harvest and Christmas eve, on which night it is given to the master bullock in the chall. "Hollaing the neck" is still heard in East Cornwall, and is one of the cheerfullest of rural sounds.
Since the 20th century, the Federation of Old Cornwall Societies has been reviving this tradition; the ale part sounds good.
The lane to Carn Euny is one of the better-surfaced public byways in Cornwall.
Public byways are rights of way down which motor vehicles may be driven depending on how brave you are and how expensive your car is to fix. You are also permitted to use a horse-drawn carriage, should you own one. Byways tend to be surfaced in an ad-hoc manner either with gravel or occasionally with a smattering of tarmac, but still leaving plenty of room for a good crop of grass to grow down the centre. They are conventionally marked using red waymarks or a "Public Byway" sign. There are 130 miles of byways in Cornwall.
Like other members of the pea family, gorse produces its seeds in pods. The seeds are ejected with a popping sound when pods split open in hot weather. This can catapult the seeds up to five metres. The plants are able to live 30 years and survive sub-zero temperatures, the seeds can withstand fire and remain viable in the soil for 30 years.
Most parishes in West Penwith have some coastline and when fish were landed and gutted, the waste was often fed to pigs. Sancreed is a completely inland parish so the pigs were fed only with dairy waste. Sancreed pigs therefore had a reputation as the best tasting (i.e. least fishy!) at Penzance market.
The second part of the Latin name of red campion - dioica ("two houses") - refers to the plants' gender. Some plants are male and others are female. The male plants' flowers can be recognised from five yellow stamens sticking out from a protruding ring in the centre of the petals. The female plants' flowers have no protruding ring and instead have 5 curly white stigmas. These produce a white froth to trap pollen.
There are two wells situated either side of the path and these are both associated with St Euny. The more elaborate one has steps leading down to it and the other is surrounded by four large granite slabs. The site is only recorded from the 18th Century so the true age of the wells is unknown. There is also mention of a chapel being located near the wells (hence Chapel Euny).
Many people understandably confuse the two wells beside the path leading to the Carn Euny ancient village (with metal grilles) for these. No records have so far been found for the wells with metal grilles being holy wells but the one by the large boulder is thought to be quite old.
Also quite confusing is that "Chapel Euny" is now used as a broad place name for the settlement, hence the wooden sign for "Chapel Euny" by the junction pointing towards the cottage and Carn Euny (which is actually in the opposite direction to where the chapel is thought to have been).
Before Christianity, the Pagan Celtic people of Cornwall worshipped wonders of the natural world. Where clean, drinkable water welled up from the ground in a spring, this was seen as pretty awesome. The sites were seen as portals to another world, and is why fairies are often associated with springs. Where the springwater dissolved minerals, for specific conditions (e.g. deficiency in a mineral) or where the minerals present had antibacterial/fungal properties, the water appeared to have healing powers.
"Holy wells" were created because the Christian church was unhappy with the people continuing their old Pagan ways and worshipping sacred springs. In the 10th Century, the church issued a cannon (law) to outlaw such practices. This didn't work, so they issued another one in the 11th Century, and again in the 12th Century. Even despite the church going to the lengths of building a chapel over the top of some springs to obliterate them, the people still hung onto their sacred springs. The church finally settled on a compromise and rebranded the springs as (Christian) Holy Wells, so the old practices could continue behind a Christian façade.
The remains of an ancient village at Carn Euny was discovered in the early 19th Century by prospectors searching for tin deposits. Carn Euny was occupied from the Iron Age until late Roman times although excavations on this site have shown that there was activity at Carn Euny as early as the Neolithic period. There is evidence that the first timber huts there were built about 200 BC, but by the 1st century BC, these had been replaced by stone huts. What remains today are the foundations of stone houses from the 2nd to 4th centuries AD.
More information about Carn Euny from the Cornwall Heritage Trust.
Within the ancient village is a large and well-preserved fogou.
A fogou is a drystone underground passage found in a few Iron Age settlements in West Cornwall. Their purpose is not known. One theory is that they were used for food storage whilst another is that they had a ceremonial use.
The word derives from the Cornish word for cave (mogow which became vogou). This also gave rise to a dialect word for cave - "vug" - which has been assimilated into mining terminology to mean a natural cavity in rock.
Carn Euny is managed by the Cornwall Heritage Trust.
The Cornwall Heritage Trust (CHT) is a charity founded in 1985 to preserve and strengthen Cornish heritage. The CHT own some historic structures such as the Treffry Viaduct and also manage a number of state-owned English Heritage sites in Cornwall such as Carn Euny.
The CHT management of some of the smaller English Heritage sites follows controversy in 1999 when the Revived Cornish Stannary Parliament pressure group removed several English Heritage signs. CHT now manage these in partnership with local communities, Natural England, Historic England and English Heritage.
As part of the English Heritage partnership, members of the Cornwall Heritage Trust can visit the larger English Heritage sites in Cornwall (Tintagel Castle, Restormel Castle, Launceston Castle, Pendennis Castle, Chysauster etc) free-of-charge. CHT annual membership is therefore quite an economical option for anyone intending to visit multiple English Heritage sites solely in Cornwall. The family membership is particularly good value-for-money.
Researchers have found a recessive gene which appears to turn normal 3-leaf clovers into the 4-leaf version. Normally this is masked by the 3-leaf gene but environmental conditions can promote the 4-leaf form. Some domestic varieties have also been selectively bred to increase the proportion of 4-leaf plants. Genetically-engineered four leaf clovers are now a possibility with some farms in the USA reportedly already using genetic modification to churn-out thousands of plastic-sealed "lucky" charms per day.
Pineapple weed is related to chamomile and is consequently also known as false chamomile. Unlike chamomile, it doesn't have white flowers - its flowers consisting of little yellow balls are therefore quite distinctive. Even more so is the fruity pineapple-like scent when is trodden on or squeezed.
Pineapple weed was introduced into the UK in the late 19th Century but is now widely naturalised. One reason it has been so successful is that it is able to colonise poor soils on waste ground including cracks between paving and consequently one of its common names is "street weed". In the rural environment it's often encountered near gateways or tracks through fields where the ground has been disturbed by tractors.
Up to late Victorian times, the fields either side of this area were also quite small but the hedges have since been removed from those to create larger fields. The bushes along the remaining hedges include hawthorn.
In sheltered places, hawthorn trees can reach 20-40ft in height and live up to 400 years. In harsher environments such as the coast and moors they can be as little as 5-6ft tall.
Caer Bran is located at the top of the hill on the right.
Caer Bran is thought to have originally been built in the Bronze Age with a single rampart-like ring cairn forming a hilltop enclosure which contained at least three smaller ring cairns. It is thought that later, in the Iron Age, a new rampart was built on the outside of the original one.
The path to the right leads to the Caer Bran hillfort.
Although the fronds of bracken die back each year, the black underground roots are perennial and spread extensively, sending up fronds at intervals. The root system of one bracken plant can stretch up to a quarter of a mile across making bracken one of the largest plants in the world.
Two Bronze Age barrows stood on the summit of Sancreed Beacon although little now remains. One originally consisted of a burial chamber with a large capstone (now lying off to one side) balanced on a ring of boulders. Fragments of an urn containing ashes were found in 1925. There are remains of hut circles on the side of the hill which are also thought to date from the Bronze Age. The name of the hill is due to its later use as a fire beacon.
More information about Sancreed Beacon from the Cornwall Heritage Trust.
Several species of heather grow in Cornwall and are most easily recognised when they flower from July to September. The one with the most brightly coloured (purple) flowers is known as bell heather due to the bell-shaped flowers. This is the earliest one to start flowering - normally in June. Bell heather is usually interspersed with ling or common heather which has much smaller flowers which are usually paler and pinker and come out at the start of July. A third kind known as cross-leafed heath is less abundant but can be recognised by the pale pink bell-shaped flowers that grow only near the tips of the stems, resembling pink lollipops. A fourth species known as Cornish heath grows only on the Lizard and has more elaborate flowers which are mostly pale with a dark purple crown at the front.
Heathers and heaths are members of the Ericaceae family. The formal definition of a heather is a member of the Calluna genus within this family whereas heaths are members of the Erica genus. Bell heather is actually an Erica and therefore technically not a heather but a heath.
Heather plants have a symbiotic relationship with fungi which grows inside and between some of the plant root cells. Up to 80% of the root structure can be made up of fungi. The fungi are able to extract nutrients from poor, acidic soils that plants struggle with. In return, the plant is able to generate other nutrients (e.g. sugars by photosynthesis) that are useful to the fungi. A similar partnership between plants and fungi occurs in lichens.
Heather can grow in soils which have concentrations of metals normally considered toxic to other plants and they are also tolerant of salty (high sodium) environments on the coast. Their symbiosis with fungi restricts metal uptake through their roots.
Heather plants can live up to 40 years and over time they form woody stems. This provides them with a way of excreting heavy metals that they absorb by locking it up in the layers of dead wood (found by researchers as the areas in the plant with the highest concentrations). Their woody stems have also found many uses over the centuries including fuel, thatch and ropes. One other use has made it into the genus name for heather - kallune is Greek for "to brush".
Rosebay willowherb is a tall plant with a spike of pink flowers in late summer which can often be seen beside paths and tracks. Their long leaves have a distinctive thin, white vein along the centre.
The name "rosebay" dates from at least Tudor times and is thought to be based on loose resemblances of the leaves to bay leaves and the flowers to wild roses. The overall family are also known as "willowherbs" due to the resemblance of the leaves to willow leaves. The two names have since been brought together resulting in the slightly confusing duplicate description of the leaf shape.
Rosebay willowherb is known as fireweed in USA as it's found on burnt sites after forest fires. For similar reasons it was known as London's Ruin after the Great Fire. In the Second World War it was also known as bombweed due to its rapid colonisation of bomb craters.
It is a pioneer species which is good at colonising disturbed ground as its seeds travel long distances in the wind and remain viable in the soil for many years. It was considered a rare species in Britain in the 18th century but spread along the corridors cleared for railways in Victorian times.
During the Iron Age and even during Roman times, bronze was still used particularly for items such as jewellery. There were two reasons for this: unlike iron, bronze does not quickly corrode in air and water and the colour and lustre of polished bronze was more attractive than rusty iron.
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