Ditch and rampart at Caer Bran hill fort - geograph

Caer Bran Hill Fort is an archaeological site near Sancreed and Carn Euny

Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

village, on the

Penwith Penwith (; ) is an area of Cornwall, England, located on the peninsula of the same name. It is also the name of a former Non-metropolitan district, local government district, whose council was based in Penzance. The area is named after one ...

peninsula in

Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...

Site

It is a popular location for walkers and antiquarians because it commands a stunning 360 degree panorama of the southern end of the Penwith peninsula, which probably accounts for its defensive importance. The site consists of an

hill fort A hillfort is a type of fortification, fortified refuge or defended settlement located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typical of the late Bronze Age Europe, European Bronze Age and Iron Age Europe, Iron Age. So ...

which originally included a circular stone-lined inner wall, twelve feet thick, enclosing a space 200 feet in diameter. Surrounding this was a ditch forty-five feet wide and seven feet deep, an earthen rampart fifteen feet high with stone revetment and a slight counterscarp outer bank. There are remnants of a stone-lined causeway over the ditch at the original entrance to the North West adjacent to the ancient trackway linking

Penzance Penzance ( ; ) is a town, civil parish and port in the Penwith district of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is the westernmost major town in Cornwall and is about west-southwest of Plymouth and west-southwest of London. Situated in the ...

with

Land's End Land's End ( or ''Pedn an Wlas'') is a headland and tourist and holiday complex in western Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, on the Penwith peninsula about west-south-west of Penzance at the western end of the A30 road. To the east of it is ...

. In the centre are the remains of a large circular stone building, of about fifty feet in diameter. There are three

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

ring cairns within the outer ramparts according to a Cornwall Archaeological Unit Survey. Most of the original stonework was robbed for building purposes during the nineteenth century. The fort was probably built to protect locally mined metals in particular tin, copper and silver before transportation to nearby ports in Mount's Bay or the Hayle estuary. It overlooked at least three Iron Age settlements within a half mile radius.

Folklore

The name derives from Caer, the Cornish word for fortress and the name Bran means "

Raven A raven is any of several large-bodied passerine bird species in the genus '' Corvus''. These species do not form a single taxonomic group within the genus. There is no consistent distinction between crows and ravens; the two names are assigne ...

" or Crow. The association with Bran probably relates to the nearby

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...

Brane In string theory and related theories (such as supergravity), a brane is a physical object that generalizes the notion of a zero-dimensional point particle, a one-dimensional string, or a two-dimensional membrane to higher-dimensional objec ...

, a contraction of Bosvran 'the house of Bran'. This may be the same Bran the Blessed from the

Mabinogion The ''Mabinogion'' () is a collection of the earliest Welsh prose stories, compiled in Middle Welsh in the 12th–13th centuries from earlier oral traditions. There are two main source manuscripts, created –1410, as well as a few earlier frag ...

in Welsh folklore, a

giant In folklore, giants (from Ancient Greek: ''wiktionary:gigas, gigas'', cognate wiktionary:giga-, giga-) are beings of humanoid appearance, but are at times prodigious in size and strength or bear an otherwise notable appearance. The word ''gia ...

and King of Britain with parallels to the Fisher King, the keeper of the

Holy Grail The Holy Grail (, , , ) is a treasure that serves as an important motif in Arthurian literature. Various traditions describe the Holy Grail as a cup, dish, or stone with miraculous healing powers, sometimes providing eternal youth or sustenanc ...

in Arthurian legend who lived at a castle called Corbenic which is similar to ''Corben'' the old French word for Crow. In Cornish folklore the name Bran is associated with the Mên Scryfa granite pillar which contains the inscription 'rialobrani cunovali fili' which means 'royal raven glorious prince'. An invader attacked the glorious prince and occupied a hill fort, at Penzance driving Bran back to his hill fort at Caer Bran. A battle was fought, and Bran was killed possibly on his way to Chun Castle and a stone was erected at the site which was said to correspond to the height of the dead warrior. In local legend Caer Bran was said to be a

sanctuary A sanctuary, in its original meaning, is a sacred space, sacred place, such as a shrine, protected by ecclesiastical immunity. By the use of such places as a haven, by extension the term has come to be used for any place of safety. This seconda ...

from evil spirits and the abode of the ''Pobel Vean'' ''(Cornish: Little people)'' or faeries. Weatherhill, Craig. ''Belerion – Ancient Sites of Land's End''. 1981. (page 40)

Landmarks

* Carn Euny Iron Age Village and

fogou A fogou or fougou (pronounced "foo-goo") is an underground, dry-stone structure found on Iron Age or Romano-British-defended settlement sites in Cornwall. The original purpose of a fogou is uncertain today. Colloquially called , , , giant holts ...

is about half a mile to the west. * Bartinney Castle is an Iron Age Enclosure 1 mile to the west. * Sancreed Beacon is to the North East about half a mile.

References

External links

{{commons category, Caer Bran hill fort
The megalithic portal

The Modern Antiquarian
* http://www.oliverscornwall.co.uk/antiquities.html#Bran Penwith Hill forts in Cornwall Buildings and structures in Cornwall History of Cornwall Iron Age sites in Cornwall Prehistoric sites in Cornwall Culture of Cornwall