Ancient Penwith - Ancient Penwith | Cornwall

Ancient Penwith
The prehistoric landscape of West Penwith, the Land's End peninsula, Cornwall
Ancient Penwith
Ancient Penwith
The prehistoric landscape of the Land's End Peninsula
Ancient Penwith
Go to content
West Penwith or Belerion is the 'toe' at the far end of Cornwall.
It is dense with ancient sites.

Penwith's rich prehistory goes back 6,000 years.

This site, Ancient Penwith, is about the geomancy
and earth energies of the prehistoric landscape here
and the achievements of Neolithic and Bronze Age civilisation.
Where is West Penwith?
Map of Ancient West Penwith: Ancient Sites | Alignments

Ancient West Penwith

West Penwith is 16 x 12 km (10 x 8 miles) in size, bounded by sea-cliffs on three sides. It has over 700 ancient sites, big and small.
Carn Galva from Lanyon Quoit
Carn Galva from Lanyon Quoit
These include:
+ tor enclosures, cliff sanctuaries, quoits and carns, 5,700ish years old;
+ stone circles, menhirs, cairns and mounds, 4,000ish years old;
+ and fogous, rounds, holy wells, crosses and churches, a mere 1,000-2,500ish years old.

In the Bronze Age West Penwith was well known as a source of tin, also gold and copper. It sat at the hub of a maritime megalithic culture from Portugal to Scandinavia.

There was system to the way Penwith's ancient sites were located and built. They formed a network that knitted into an integral system covering the peninsula. This suggests their hidden purpose: a prehistoric geoengineering project aiming to improve the ecosystem, climate and wellbeing of Penwith's people. A far-fetched idea? Yes. Evidence? Yes, here.

What did the ancients know that we don't?  Here you will find maps and ideas about Penwith's ancient sites' possible significance.

Welcome to Belerion - 'the shining land' - a name recorded by the Greek historian Diodorus Siculus in 60 BCE. It still applies today.


Text, site and most photos by Palden Jenkins. Organically grown in Grumbla, West Penwith.
About this site

It's about West Penwith's ancient landscape and the where and the why of its megalithic sites.

It suggests why ancient sites were built and shaped as they were, to form a complete system Penwith-wide, a kind of geo-engineering project.

It goes with the book Shining Land - the ancient sites of West Penwith, by Palden Jenkins. The book gives far more detail than this site.

Over time Penwith's prehistory has been researched by antiquarians, geomancers, dowsers and archaeologists.

The contents of this site and the book stand on their shoulders, drawing on their work and taking it further. Acknowledgements to all of them. Future researchers: please take it further.
You might be interested to subscribe to Meyn Mamvro, a twice-yearly journal on the archaeology, traditions and earth mysteries of ancient sites in West Penwith and across Cornwall. Or visit the Meyn Mamvro Archive containing over thirty years of past editions.
Privacy. This site uses temporary cookies to watch general trends only. We aren't selling anything, capturing, mining, passing on your data or making mailing lists. It's a public service - no strings. Any issues, please make contact.
Back to content