More information : [Centred SW 4345 3700] A courtyard house village at
Porthmeor, Zennor, was excavated in 1933, 1934 and 1935, under the direction of Hirst. The site was originally an open village like Chysauster [SW 43 NE 69] but was later fortified.
The occupation of the site lasted approximately from 5th to 6th century AD. Excavation found evidence of houses, a fogou, 2 Roman coins (one a Marcus Aurelius), Romano-British and post-Roman pottery and various other finds. [See AO/59/252/6.8] (1)
The ancient village at Porthmeor in Zennor is scheduled as an ancient monument. (2)
A 25-inch survey has been made of the defensive wall and enclosed courtyard houses and hut circles in OS field 928 and of the fogou and adjacent hut circle and courtyard house, OS. fields 1000 & 1003 and two other hut circles in field 1003. The settlement is centred at SW 4343 3706.
The defensive wall of the enclosure (centred at SW 4344 3708) is of dry stone construction and utilised as the modern field boundary. The north west side consists of a bank with external dry stone retaining wall surmounted by a dry stone wall. The level of the ground is higher within the enclosure than outside at this point. On the north east the ground is higher outside the enclosure and there is a bank and retaining wall within the wall. The courtyard houses and huts within the defensive wall are of dry stone construction and as described and illustrated by Authority 1. An additional feature consists of two small rectangular chambers inside the perimeter wall on the north side. In the western chamber a walled up opening in the outer wall may be another original entrance to the main enclosure. The fogou at SW 4340 3702 consists of a narrow curving roofless passage with sides of dry stone walling 1.7 metres high. The western wall is corbelled inwards towards the top. It is bounded on the north west by an outer dry stone wall and on the south east by the wall of a courtyard house chamber. The space between the fogou walls and the
outside walls is filled with earth and stones. The courtyard house in juxtapostion with the east side of the fogou is overgrown with bushes and the plan is confused. There
is one large circular chamber with a smaller one to the north.
To the east of the larger chamber is a complex of small
compartments. There are two isolated and apparently unexcavated hut circles at SW 4343 3702 and SW 4346 3704.
There are traces of a field system visible in the fields adjacent to the fortified area on the north, west and south sides and
extending a considerable distance to the south. The area is centred at SW 4347 3699. The south west part consists of low banks of earth and stones set on edge, the remainder of ploughed down terraces or lynchets. Ground photograph AO/61/14/6 is of the main entrance from the south east. AO/61/14/7 is of the hut circle from the south west AO/61/14/8 is the view along the fogou from the south. Pottery from the site is in the County Museum, Truro. (3)
No change, but the features are becoming much overgrown with furze, bramble and thorn. (4)
Settlement (NR) (5)
A courtyard house village with fogou within a round, having adjacent associated cultivation terraces. (6)
The Porthmeor fogou is too ruinous to determine the original
plan with certainty but appears to conform to the usual design with corbelled walls, probably lintelled roof and curving passage. The proximity to a dwelling is usual but it appears not to form a complex with the house and it is probable that the original fogou end was destroyed when the house was built. The wall now blocking the end would therefore be of a later date than the fogou side walls. (7)
SW 4341 3703. Iron Age fogou lying within an Iron Age settlement now overgrown with bracken, bramble and gorse. The site lies near a farm called Porthmur, Cornish for great cove, on the northern side of Bosporthennis valley within a mile of similar sites at Bosigran, Treen and between fortified promontories at Gurnards Head and Bosigran. The settlement consists of both hut circles and courtyard houses surrounded by an unditched light fortification with 2 entrances. The fogou, one hut circle and a single courtyard house lie well to the south of the protected enclosure. The fogou was discovered in the mid 19th century by Henry Crozier who recorded 8 or 9 elliptical remains. In 1933 the site was excavated by Hirst who recorded scanty remains of stone houses and a long mound, 75 feet long by 40 feet wide and up to 10 feet high indicating the remains of the fogou. Fragments of pottery were found within the monument dating from 50 AD to 4th century AD. (8) |