This is a fogou — a Cornish subterranean drystone-built passage structure — situated on the northern slope of Peninnis Head on St Mary's, Isles of Scilly. Like other Cornish fogous, it likely dates from the later Iron Age through the Romano-British period (roughly the 4th century BC to 3rd century AD), and would have been associated with a nearby settlement, though its specific function (storage, refuge, or ritual use) remains debated.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
Fogous are a regionally distinctive feature of far-southwestern Britain, but this example is notable as one of very few recorded on the Isles of Scilly, where the type is rare compared with the Penwith peninsula. It reflects the cultural continuity between Scilly and mainland Cornwall during a period when the islands lay well beyond direct Roman administrative control.
Little has been formally published on this particular monument, and it has not seen modern excavation; it is known principally through field survey and is recorded in the Cornwall and Scilly Historic Environment Record. The associated settlement context on Peninnis Head — an area rich in prehistoric remains including hut circles, field systems and cairns — suggests it served a small farming community exploiting the headland.
This is a fogou — a Cornish subterranean drystone-built passage structure — situated on the northern slope of Peninnis Head on St Mary's, Isles of Scilly. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a site site from the Roman period in Britain.
Iron Age to Romano-British fogou on northern Peninnis Head, 170m south of Carn Gwavel Farm, St Mary's is classified as a Roman site — a civilian site in the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer. Roman Britain's archaeology encompasses thousands of sites ranging from legionary fortresses and marching camps to villas, temples and towns.
Several Roman sites lie within a short distance, including Prehistoric settlement, Romano-British cist cemetery and Civil War battery in northern Toll's Porth, St Mary's (2.1 km), Prehistoric to Romano-British field system and settlement at Higher Town, St Agnes (3.2 km), Prehistoric cairn group, cists and prehistoric to Roman field system and settlement on Little Arthur, St Martin's (4.8 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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Research the area around Iron Age to Romano-British fogou on northern Peninnis Head, 170m south of Carn Gwavel Farm, St Mary's