<< Our Photo Pages >> Carn Gluze - Chambered Cairn in England in Cornwall

Submitted by Horatio on Thursday, 24 October 2024  Page Views: 21344

Neolithic and Bronze AgeSite Name: Carn Gluze Alternative Name: Ballowall Barrow, Carn Gloose
Country: England County: Cornwall Type: Chambered Cairn
Nearest Town: Penzance  Nearest Village: St Just
Map Ref: SW35523125  Landranger Map Number: 203
Latitude: 50.122260N  Longitude: 5.701482W
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
 4 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
 3 Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
 5 Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
 5

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I have visited· I would like to visit

PAB micske davidsum1 would like to visit

markedouglass visited on 29th Aug 2024 - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 4 Access: 5 My wife and I jogged to the site from our AirBNB outside St Just. It was an unexpected find, as I hadn't heard of the site previously and only searched for it following seeing signs during a visit to the beach a day or two before. In the cool, early morning air, it was an atmospheric visit. Signs at the site provide useful context and interpretation. It is an unusually monument visually, and it would be nice to have some descriptive linkages to the other monuments on the Penwith peninsula.

bishop_pam visited on 25th Nov 2022 - their rating: Cond: 5 Amb: 5 Access: 5 First visited on 27/9/17 and well worth a second visit

LiveAndrew visited on 22nd Apr 2021 - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 4 Access: 5 Beautiful sunny day spoilt by a scattering of soiled wet wipes left inside one of the side chambers. Luckily I had a dog-poo bag with which to clean it up.

SandyG visited on 17th Sep 2019 - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 5 Access: 5

markj99 visited on 6th Feb 2019 - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 5 Access: 5 Ballowall Chambered Cairn has been sympathetically restored. It is located in an elevated position overlooking picturesque Cape Cornwall.

lucasn visited on 14th Jul 2018 - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 4 Access: 5

ChrisHealey visited on 19th Aug 2017 - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 4 Access: 4

ajmp3003 visited on 2nd May 2016 - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 3 Access: 5

lichen visited on 1st Sep 2015 - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 5 Access: 5

jeffrep visited on 16th May 2011 - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 5 Access: 4

coin visited - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 4 Access: 5

Hodur visited - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 4 Access: 4

h_fenton JimChampion AngieLake TheCaptain ArchAstro have visited here

Average ratings for this site from all visit loggers: Condition: 3.58 Ambience: 4.33 Access: 4.75

Carn Gluze
Carn Gluze submitted by Horatio : Carn Gluze looking North-West (Vote or comment on this photo)
This elaborate and unusual barrow with two concentric inner walls in a ring, which has been restored Three stone cists were discovered inside, two with cremations inside. The site was originally covered with a cairn of stones approximately 20m in diameter. A lovely atmospheric place.

To those who don't know, it can initially be difficult to tell the difference between this ancient barrow, and all of the mining remains spread around everywhere here, spoil tips, walled off shafts and of course destroyed buildings. Please don't be climbing over things and falling down a mineshaft!
In the care of the National Trust and English Heritage. Page text by Vicky.
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Carn Gluze
Carn Gluze submitted by h_fenton : Carn Gluze / Ballowall Barrow with evening light. Kite Aerial Photograph 10 April 2010 @ 6.35pm ---- I did try to take some vertical aerial photographs but my targeting was not quite good enough. (5 comments - Vote or comment on this photo)

Carn Gluze
Carn Gluze submitted by croppy : Carn Gluze taken with arial cam (1 comment - Vote or comment on this photo)

Carn Gluze
Carn Gluze submitted by PaulM : Ballowall barrow (aka Carn Gloose), nr St Just, West Penwith, Cornwall (SW355312) Probably originally a Neolithic quoit which was later adapted into a Bronze Age cairn with the addition of a large conical mound. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Carn Gluze
Carn Gluze submitted by croppy : Carn Gluze taken with arial cam (Vote or comment on this photo)

Carn Gluze
Carn Gluze submitted by jeffrep : The Two Concentric Drystone Walls of Carn Gluze (Ballowall Barrow), Cornwall, England. (1 comment - Vote or comment on this photo)

Carn Gluze
Carn Gluze submitted by Adam Stanford : Carn Gluze taken with Aerial-Cam April 2007. This image helps show the entire monument, its proximity to the sea and general landscape setting. (1 comment)

Carn Gluze
Carn Gluze submitted by Hamish : The centre of the barrow, I didn't go down or I would probably still be there. (1 comment)

Carn Gluze
Carn Gluze submitted by postman : Evening summer 2006

Carn Gluze
Carn Gluze submitted by Hamish : Still in good shape.

Carn Gluze
Carn Gluze submitted by Hamish : The Barrow is maze like.

Carn Gluze
Carn Gluze submitted by bec-zog : Carn Gluze, Ballowall Bronze Age Barrow SW355312

Carn Gluze
Carn Gluze submitted by Bladup : Carn Gluze looking North and showing the dark hole of the Entrance Grave

Carn Gluze
Carn Gluze submitted by DrNickLeB : Carn Gluze

Carn Gluze
Carn Gluze submitted by melinki : Heather on Ballowall Barrow, with the reef known as the Brisons in the background. Taken August 2006.

Carn Gluze
Carn Gluze submitted by TheCaptain : Ballowall Barrow / Carn Gluze. July 2003 Difficult to get a good picture of, but I quite like the way this one shows the position of the barrow with respect to the clifftop views. Others will probably have better pictures of the structure itself

Carn Gluze
Carn Gluze submitted by Horatio : looking south

Carn Gluze
Carn Gluze submitted by Bladup : Carn Gluze, The Central Grave (originally T shaped), This area also once had 5 cists (With Bronze age pottery and Burnt Bones in them)

Carn Gluze
Carn Gluze submitted by Bladup : Carn Gluze, From here you can really see the curve of the original cairn and how high it would have once been, Land's end is visible in the distance

Carn Gluze
Carn Gluze submitted by Bladup : Carn Gluze, Large Stones in the lower section of the Cairn

Carn Gluze
Carn Gluze submitted by Bladup : Carn Gluze, Northern Pit

Carn Gluze
Carn Gluze submitted by Horatio : Ballowall Barrow as on the OS map (Carn Gluze otherwise) this is the view form the coast path and the original entrance looking inland. A very atmospheric site situated on the cliff top not far from Cape Cornwall. Access is easy as it's right next to Carn Gloose road (OS map) and parking is good. I walked up the hill from the NT car park at Cape Cornwall which is not a hrad climb at all.

Carn Gluze
Carn Gluze submitted by ChrisHealey : August 2016 (2 comments)

Carn Gluze
Carn Gluze submitted by Bladup : Carn Gluze.

Carn Gluze
Carn Gluze submitted by Bladup

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"Carn Gluze" | Login/Create an Account | 8 News and Comments
  
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Ballowall Barrow / Carn Glooze by lucasn on Sunday, 29 July 2018
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Carn Gluze by TheCaptain on Saturday, 13 March 2010
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Streetview

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Folklore by coldrum on Thursday, 11 September 2008
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Fairies were said to dance at the burial chamber and miners making their way home at night would often report seeing fairy lights.

http://www.historic-cornwall.org.uk/a2m/bronze_age/cairn/ballowall/ballowall.htm

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Re: Carn Gluze by coldrum on Thursday, 11 September 2008
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English Heritage:

http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/conProperty.234
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Re: Carn Gluze by AngieLake on Sunday, 31 October 2004
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Craig Weatherhill, writing in 'Cornovia' gives "SW 356312" as the Ord Survey map ref. "1 mile W of St Just, take lane signposted 'Carn Gloose'. The site lies by roadside on clifftop".

"This large, complex, multi-phase monument is unique. It consists of a large closed chamber within a central cone-shaped cairn, the latter being surrounded by a later collar or cairn-ring. The central chamber contained a number of stone cists and a T-shaped ritual pit; this alone remains. Two further cists can still be seen in the narrow space between the central cairn and the collar which contains a smaller chamber, again with a pit cut into its floor. Set into the outside of the collar, on the south-west side, is an entrance grave with two capstones in place. It is probable that a conventional Scillonian chamber tomb of neolithic type was the first structure here, followed in the Middle Bronze Age by the central cairn and its cists, and finally by the collar which incorporated the original mound and chamber of the entrance grave. The top of the central cairn is now missing, but the cairn survives to a height of 2.7m. The entire monument has diameters of 21.4m and 20.4m."
I think this book is invaluable to megalith-hunters in Cornwall.
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Re: Carn Gluze by AngieLake on Sunday, 31 October 2004
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According to Craig Weatherhill in his excellent book "Cornovia", Ballowall Barrow, or Carn Gloose (or Gluze) is a 'Scillonian' chamber tomb. He describes, in the introductory section on 'The Monuments', various kinds of chamber tombs. Under 'Scillonian chamber tombs' he tells us that in its simplest form, "this type of tomb or entrance grave consists of a circular mound, usually between 6 and 12 metres across, retained by a heavy kerb of granite blocks. Within the mound is a passage-like chamber whose walls are large slabs on edge, or stone walling, which opens onto the side of the mound. The chamber, usually about a metre in both height and width, is roofed by a number of small capstones.
Several of these tombs show a second phase of construction, often in the form of a lower collar surrounding the original mound. This is best seen at Bant's Carn on St Mary's in the Isles of Scilly. Other second-phase alterations include the blocking of the outer end of the chamber, as at Tregiffian and Tregeseal, both on the mainland in Penwith. Grander forms of multi-phase construction are also to be found.
The huge and unique Ballowall Barrow (or Carn Gloose), Penwith, presents a number of possibilities regarding the exact sequence of phases, but it is likely that a conventional entrance grave was built first, before the construction of the massive and complex structure into which it is incorporated.
An apparent entrance grave on the summit of Chapel Carn Brea, Penwith, was later covered by a massive cairn incorporating a number of retaining walls and a large stone cist. Some aspects of entrance grave design in Scilly even suggest the existence of a specialist architect.
The chambers are seldom of a simple rectangular plan; usually a distinct bulge occurs near the inner end, resulting in a coffin-shaped plan. The entrances are often constricted, as at Porth Hellick Down, Scilly, where an upright slab reduces the entrance to less than half the width of the chamber and its approach passage.
The Isles of Scilly contain an astonishing number of these tombs: more than fifty still survive. On the mainland, where they are restricted to the Penwith peninsula, only a dozen or so have been identified.
Assigning a date to the entrance graves is no easier at present (this was the year 2000 edition of book) than dating the Penwith chamber tombs. Only a handful have been properly excavated, and very few contained human remains (cremation in almost all of the few cases). Charcoal from the Tregiffian tomb produced a carbon- 14 date of circa 1540bc (1900 BC), which conflicts with the late neolithic pottery yielded by similar tombs. Such cremations must date from secondary use, and much doubt has been cast as to whether or not entrance graves were originally built as tombs at all. One theory is that they served as focal points for a cult concerned with soil fertility.
(THIS COULD ACCOUNT FOR MY SENSE OF UNEASE IN THE AREA OF THE 'T-SHAPED RITUAL PIT').
Recent fieldwork in the Isles of Scilly indicates that the island tombs derived from those on the mainland, and not vice versa as previously thought. As the islanders (sic) were not colonized until circa 2230 BC, by a farming group of Beaker successor people, it follows that the mainland tombs are older. It is likely that a date prior to 2500 BC should be considered for the origin of entrance grave design and construction."
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Re: Carn Gluze by Anonymous on Friday, 23 April 2004
the cairn is called Ballowall Barrow!
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