Bodrifty Iron Age Settlement
More than sixteen Neolithic quoits and tombs and more than twenty Bronze Age monuments have been found on the Penwith moors, which are also home to Bodrifty Iron Age village, one of the best-preserved of its kind in the world. First excavated in the 1950s, Bodrifty village consists of the ruins of no less than eight roundhouses within a three acre area enclosed by a low bank. The settlement, which dates back at least seven thousand years, appears to have thrived between the fifth and second centuries BC. Bronze Age pottery found during a second excavation in the 1980s is on display in the Royal Cornwall Museum in Truro.
In 1999, inspired by the excavations, local smallholder Fred Mustill received a small grant to build a replica roundhouse. The task of building the replica required the shifting of granite rocks weighing several tons, felling, shaping and lashing hundreds of feet of timber, and hundreds of hours work cutting reeds for the roof. The ceremony to mark the completion of the project was filmed by Channel Four's 'Time Team'. Intended for use as an educational resource, the roundhouse is also available for luxury camping. The public are welcome to explore the site, where the remains of the roundhouses are easily spotted, particularly the largest, whose walls are still four feet high in places. Bodrifty is three miles north-west of Penzance, in the village of Newmill.
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