Trevelgue Head, also known as Porth Island, is a

headland A headland, also known as a head, is a coastal landform, a point of land usually high and often with a sheer drop, that extends into a body of water. It is a type of promontory. A headland of considerable size often is called a cape.Whittow, John ...

north-east of

Newquay Newquay ( ; kw, Tewynblustri) is a town on the north coast in Cornwall, in the south west of England. It is a civil parish, seaside resort, regional centre for aerospace industries, spaceport and a fishing port on the North Atlantic coast of ...

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

, England, next to

Porth Porth ( cy, Y Porth) is a town and a community in the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf, within the historic county boundaries of Glamorgan, Wales. Lying in the Rhondda Valley, it is regarded as the gateway connecting the Rhondda Fawr and Rh ...

at the eastern end of

Newquay Bay Newquay Bay is a bay adjacent to Newquay in Cornwall, England. The bay is about wide, from Towan Head in the west to Trevelgue Head in the east, beyond which is Watergate Bay Watergate Bay ( kw, Porth Tregoryan, meaning ''cove at Coryan's fa ...

. It is the site of an

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...

promontory fort A promontory fort is a defensive structure located above a steep cliff, often only connected to the mainland by a small neck of land, thus using the topography to reduce the ramparts needed. Although their dating is problematic, most seem to da ...

with defensive ramparts and two

round barrows A round barrow is a type of tumulus and is one of the most common types of archaeological monuments. Although concentrated in Europe, they are found in many parts of the world, probably because of their simple construction and universal purpose. ...

dating from the

early Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...

Features

The peninsula is connected to the mainland at the eastern end; on the south (present-day Porth) is a natural harbour. The

South West Coast Path The South West Coast Path is England's longest waymarked long-distance footpath and a National Trail. It stretches for , running from Minehead in Somerset, along the coasts of Devon and Cornwall, to Poole Harbour in Dorset. Because it rises a ...

traces the perimeter of the eastern part of the peninsula. On the east side there are defensive earthworks. There is a single bank and ditch on the wider part of the peninsula near the mainland. The wide enclosure between this and the ramparts further west is protected by sea-cliffs on the northern side; on the south side there is a smaller drop to the sea, once protected by an extension of the outer rampart.Richard Wainwright, ''A Guide to the Prehistoric Remains in Britain'', Volume 1: South and East. Constable and Co., 1978. There is a gap in the peninsula, crossed by a modern bridge where there may have been originally a land-bridge; immediately before this there are three massive banks and ditches. Beyond the gap and adjacent to it is a rampart, and a final rampart further west.Trevelgue Head Cliff Castle
Cornwall Tour, accessed 29 June 2016. There are two

round barrow A round barrow is a type of tumulus and is one of the most common types of archaeological monuments. Although concentrated in Europe, they are found in many parts of the world, probably because of their simple construction and universal purpose. ...

s within the defences: a barrow in the eastern enclosure near the cliffs, in diameter and high; and a barrow at the summit of the peninsula, near the western end, in diameter and high.

Excavation

There was an archaeological excavation of the site in 1939 by C. K. Croft Andrew; the project was abandoned on the outbreak of war and the findings were not published. In 1997 the principle discoveries were analysed, and in 2011 the Cornwall Archaeological Unit published ''Trevelgue Head, Cornwall: the importance of CK Croft Andrew’s 1939 excavations for prehistoric and Roman Cornwall''.Trevelgue Head
Cornwall Guide, accessed 29 June 2016.Publications
Cornwall Archaeological Unit, accessed 29 June 2016.

Finds from excavation

There was evidence that the site was occupied from the

Mesolithic The Mesolithic (Greek: μέσος, ''mesos'' 'middle' + λίθος, ''lithos'' 'stone') or Middle Stone Age is the Old World archaeological period between the Upper Paleolithic and the Neolithic. The term Epipaleolithic is often used synonymous ...

period, but most of the remains relate to the

. There are foundations of Iron Age roundhouses, of the 2nd century BC. The largest was in diameter: there are remains of a ring of seven or eight postholes and a central hearth. The building, one of the largest such roundhouses found in Cornwall, may have been a meeting place, rather than a dwelling. There is evidence of bronze and iron smelting: furnaces, ore roasting pits and 200 kg of iron slag were found. About 600 items of worked stone, over 4,000 shards of pottery, and objects of tin, copper and iron and glass were found.

References

{{Iron Age hillforts in England Hill forts in Cornwall Headlands of Cornwall Iron Age sites in Cornwall Barrows in the United Kingdom Scheduled monuments in Cornwall