Scotland in Pagan Times; The Iron AgeAnderson, Joseph
History
Scotland in Pagan Times; The Iron Age
Anderson, Joseph
Scotland -- Antiquities
The general features of the Cornish group, on the other hand, are more
allied to those of the Scottish area, inasmuch as they are often
associated with clusters of overground habitations. One at Chapel Euny,
in the parish of Saucreed, near Penzance, contiguous to the sites of
four circular huts, is an underground gallery presenting features of
remarkable similarity to that at Cairn Conan, in Forfarshire. The
gallery, which is slightly curved, is about 60 feet in length, 6 feet
wide, and from 6 to 7 feet high. A circular chamber, 16 feet in
diameter, constructed of large granite blocks, each overlapping the one
below it and thus forming a domed roof which must have been 10 or 12
feet high, was connected with the wider end of the gallery by a passage
10 feet long, opening off one side. Another small offset near the
narrower end of the gallery, also about 10 feet long, slopes up to the
surface, presenting an entrance doorway 2 feet 8 inches in height, with
recesses on either side as if to retain a slab to close the doorway. The
floors of the gallery and chamber were paved with flat stones, and
provided with drains underneath the pavement. The relics found in the
structure were whetstones; hammer-stones; spindle-whorls; several
varieties of domestic pottery, red and black, mostly plain, but
occasionally ornamented with markings made by a pointed instrument; an
iron spear-head; and a fragment of the red lustrous ware commonly called
Samian.[118] Another at Halligey, near Trelowarren, consists of a
slightly-curved gallery 90 feet in length, from 3 to 5 feet in width,
and about 6 feet high in the middle, becoming lower towards the
extremities. It has a small rectangular chamber off one side at the
farther end of the main gallery. The main gallery opens off the middle
of the side of a shorter and wider gallery 28 feet in length, 5½ feet
wide, and 6 feet high. At one end of this shorter gallery a narrow
passage rises to the surface. The entrance passage is provided with
checks for two doors, and the whole structure is strongly and
substantially built and lintelled with large flags. On the surface there
are traces of two embankments with an intervening ditch surrounding a
large area within which there may have been a cluster of overground
structures.[119]
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Footnote 118:
These details are taken from a paper by William Borlase, Esq., in the
_Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of London_, 1868 (Second
Series, vol. iv. p. 161), where a ground plan and sections, with
woodcuts of the structural appearance of the building are given. Mr.
Borlase mentions other structures of the same class at Pendeen,
Bolleit, Chysoster, and Bodinar.
Footnote 119:
Paper by J. T. Blight, Esq., in _Archæologia_, vol. xl. p. 113, with
ground plan and woodcuts.
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