Elyn Aviva writes of her experiences in Pendeen Fogou
Pendeen Fogou wasn’t a very prepossessing site. To reach it, the three of us - my husband, Gary, our guide, Cheryl Straffon, and I - had to unfasten three rusty metal gates to venture ever deeper into a farmer’s cattle yard. The broken concrete beneath our feet was covered with several layers of dried (or drying) cow manure. Cattle were lowing and resting in their own muck in the nearby pens.
Our goal was a six-foot-tall stone structure with tall grasses and weeds growing out of the top and a yawning opening in one wall. Before we could enter the site, we had one more obstruction: a detached farm gate, which the three of us hauled over to one side.
Bending low, we followed Cheryl down a steep, stone-lined passage deep into the earth. I was grateful I had my hiking staffs to help keep me from slipping. At the bottom, the rocky passage leveled out. My flashlight illuminated moss-covered granite walls and ceiling, the large stones carefully placed to construct the fogou. Pronounced “foo-goo,” it’s a Cornish word that means “cave,” and it refers to a human-made underground cavern. It usually has a long, slightly curving central passage; another, even smaller passage called a “creep” that was originally the only entrance into the fogou; and often another passage or chamber off to one side. Although now we enter most fogous through the open end of one of the larger passages, originally the “creep” was the only way in and out—and it always descends steeply.
Fogous seem to be unique to Cornwall and were constructed some 2500 years ago, during the Cornish Iron Age, and are always found near Iron Age settlements. Some authorities suggest they were used for food storage, but they are usually too damp for that; some suggest refuge, but with only one entrance they would have been death traps. No bones have been found in them, so they were not burial places. It is probable that they were used for ceremony and ritual.
Read more at
http://www.yourlifeisatrip.com/home/fogous-and-creeps-in-cornwall.html
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