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Ballowall
Barrow or Carn Gluze
St Just |
Penwith
NGR: SW35524 31252 |
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Ballowall is a strange and possibly unique example of a
prehistoric funerary
cairn which incorporates multiple phases of use
and funerary practice spanning the
Neolithic and Middle
Bronze Age
periods. Sited on Ballowall Common overlooking the rugged granite
cliffs to the south of Cape Cornwall, it faces west towards Scilly
and the setting sun.
Ballowall Common has been heavily exploited by miners for the many
lodes of tin which underlie this area, and the monument was long
been concealed and thus protected beneath mine waste. The site was
excavated in the late 19th Century by WC Borlase who was drawn to
the site by miners’ tales of strange lights and dancing fairies,
which might indicate that the mound was exposed and recognisable not
long before Borlase’s investigation. Unfortunately, by today’s
standards, the excavation record is inadequate and unreliable; there
are many discrepancies in the accounts of the work, many of the
finds are now lost and interpretation of the site is difficult. Some
reconstruction was also carried out at this time with the aim of
making some of the interior features more accessible, further
complicating the site.
For these reasons it is not possible to construct a reliable
narrative of events for the development of the mound which explains
the various features visible today. It appears that the earliest
feature was an elongated pit near the centre of the site. This was
subsequently surrounded by
cists, these subsequently being covered
by a high mound of stone, which was then re-faced in stone. Two
further cists were constructed around the periphery of this mound,
and these in turn were covered by a stone-kerbed platform around the
earlier mound. What may have been a west-facing entrance grave was
inserted into this outer kerb. Fragments of funerary urns found in
association with these features allow us to date these broadly to
the
Neolithic and the early
Bronze Age, though a Roman coin found in
a tiny cist set high up in the mound material suggests that the site
continued to be a local focus in later prehistory.
The site which exists today is partly original and unexcavated,
partly a reconstruction of what Borlase found during his excavation.
Rather confusingly it also incorporates features like the walkway
around the central mound and the revetted central space which were
built by Borlase so that visitors could see the cists and other
features which would be hidden had the site been fully
reconstructed.
The individual components of the site are all common elements of
Neolithic and Bronze Age funerary monuments but together they form a
rare and important example of developing and continuous ritual
practices juxtaposed within a single monument complex. No other
monument of this type has so far been identified in Cornwall
although Borlase mentioned the excavation of another cairn nearby
which showed some similarities in construction. Unfortunately no
trace of this cairn now survives.
Ballowall 'Barrow' lies within a landscape rich in prehistoric
monuments, settlements and field systems and is an integral part of
a continually developing pattern of adaptation and exploitation. The
cairn lies between the highway and a public footpath; Ballowall
Common is open access land managed by The National Trust.
Sources
Sharpe, A. 1999. Ballowall St Just in
Penwith, Cornwall. An Archaeological Assessment. Historic Environment
Service, Cornwall County Council. |
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Ground & Aerial photographs |
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