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Cliff Castle menu
800 BC - AD 43 |
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Chynalls
Chynalls cliff castle is formed by two earthen banks built across
the neck of the promontory, with a ditch between. The inner rampart
is stone revetted and the original entrance was probably at the
centre where the footpath now runs. The site has never been
excavated, but there are no obvious traces of any houses or other
internal features. |
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Lankidden
Lankidden cliff castle lies on an impressive headland on the south
Cornwall coast approximately one and a half kilometres east of
Kennack Sands. At this point the natural serpentine of the Lizard
area is cut by a thick dyke (or sheet) of hard crystalline Gabbro
which terminates in the rugged stack at Carrick Luz, whose name
translated from the Cornish means ‘grey rock’. |
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Rame Head
The dramatic promontory of Rame Head lies on the south coast at the
southern tip of Cornwall, close to the mouth of the Tamar estuary.
Finds of flints reflect activity in the area as far back as the
Mesolithic Period and during the Iron Age the headland was enclosed
by a substantial ditch and rampart stretching across the narrow
isthmus forming a cliff castle. |
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The Rumps
The cliff castle exploits the narrow isthmus which links the twin
headlands to the mainland massif. During the Late Iron Age three
lines of ramparts were constructed, the outermost of which exploits
a natural fault line in the rocks. |
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Cliff Castles are found all along the ‘Celtic Fringe’ in Cornwall,
Devon, Wales, Ireland and Brittany.
They were constructed by building one or more ramparts and ditches
across the neck of a coastal promontory and have much in common
with hillforts, including the fact that both site types appear in
the fourth millennium (from 500 BC) and go out of use in the first
century AD, around the time of the Roman occupation.
Like hillforts, their purpose is being re-evaluated in the light of
information from recent excavations and studies – they do not seem
to function primarily as settlements, and their coastal location
suggests they may have played a particular role in maritime trade. |
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