Fogue

It's been a weekend in the Iron Age for me - more so than usual I might say.

Firstly I got some images from a film shoot I took part in last January on Dartmoor

Fortunately you can't see my feet in this shot. It was freezing and I was switching my authentic period footwear for some thoroughly unauthentic but nice and warm modern ones at every chance I got. 


Anyway I digress - it was another weekend in Cornwall but for walking not filming. Fogues are uniquely Cornish.  Man-made underground "caves" used for who knows what. They are often considered to have ritual purpose and the one at the B&B we were staying in particularly so.

This is Boleigh Fogue - considered to be one of the best. As it is in the garden of a private house you need permission to access it.  As guests of the B&B  though we had unrestricted access to it.

At the entrance ( on the left hand side) is the only known Iron Age humanoid carving in Cornwall. It has been suggested that it is the representation of a deity. It is actually much clearer in the photograph than it is on the stone. I took several pictures of this but only two actually recorded on the card.

And the passage way. There is also a chamber off to the left which has a large stone inside. Far too big to have been squeezed in to the chamber entrance. There are no pictures of this as my attempts to photograph the chamber and its contents failed. The camera simply didn't work there at all. Make of this what you will!






So on to  Bosporthennis Fogue. Now this did take some finding. The forecast was for sunshine and showers. What we actually got was Cornish fog and rain. This one is really off the beaten track but so well worth the effort.

Remains of the associated Iron Age settlement

The fogue ( beehive hut) itself. Unlike Boleigh  this one was not camera shy! Although it is above ground it resembles Carn Euny so strongly in both size and orientation that it is considered a fogue. Maybe it had a earth covering at one time?

The current entrance. There is a small chamber which you can just see to the right. Sadly it was full of the usual polyester ribbon detritus so beloved of some neo-pagans. We were obviously not the only ones to have searched out this site.

Woodland Wonderland

The extended Easter weekend was spent this year in South Wales ( as usual) but unusually we decided to walk UP to Castell Coch and into the woodlands above and behind it - Fforest Fawr

A familiar sight. The Red Castle itself. A Victorian 19th-century Gothic Revival folly built on a much older and originally Norman ruin.

However we bypassed the castle this time and went into the beech woods behind it. These are home to rare plants and lichens and are a SSSI.


As always seems to be the case it was a steep pull up before the path leveled out and we met a bear...

Well two bears to be exact.

These bears even had their own caves. Actually entrances to some old iron workings.  These may actually look familiar as they've featured in many TV productions including Merlin, Torchwood, Sherlock and Dr Who.

 They've also starred as the dragon's cave in  the BBC show Voyage of the Dawn Treader thanks to the Iron Pyrites in one of the inner caverns.


 

Not so much further on we came across someone else hiding in the trees. Intrigued now we changed direction and followed the path past him. 



 











I think someone dropped their watch?

That looks awfully like a cauldron - getting a bit worried now!

Is that a dragon I see? Well to be expected up in a Welsh forest I suppose. He looks asleep. Maybe we can creep past him...

And where there are dragons there is usually treasure and here was no exception! More treasure than usual I think as we passed a father laying a trail of shiny foil wrapped Easter Eggs for his children to find.

I hope they got to them first before the dragon woke up!