Near Gulval, Penzance, TR20 8XA
Tel: 07831 757934
Email: southwest@english-heritage.org.uk
Web: www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/chysauster-ancient-village
Village Life in Celtic Cornwall
The original inhabitants of Chysauster occupied this site more than 2,000 years ago and today you can see the remarkable hallmarks of a people lost in time. A street of neat and quite unique stone houses with terraced gardens, eight of which, built in pairs and with circular living rooms, still survive amongst the natural landscape of wild flowers and heather on a windswept Cornish hillside. The main rooms feature a central flat stone socket hole, for a wooden post to support the thatched roof. At the site, you can see the remains of open hearths, stone basins for grinding grain, and covered drains. A guide book and a range of gifts are available on site.
Chysauster village is believed to have been inhabited from about 100 BC until 300 AD; it was primarily agricultural and unfortified and probably occupied by members of the Dumnonii tribe.
The site also has a fogou (Cornish for cave), an underground passage. The fogou at Chysauster is in a derelict state and not as spectacular as the one that can be seen at Carn Euny.
Chysauster has been excavated several times, including a dig by the antiquarian William Copeland Borlase in 1873. Reconstruction work has been carried out on several occasions.
Managed by English Heritage.
Three miles north of Penzance.
Opening Times22nd March - 31st October Admission Charged |
Penzance Land's End Newlyn Carn Euny Ancient Village English Heritage in Cornwall