An English Summer 44

 

Four thousand years ago, an ancient people constructed a granite burial chamber, high on the cliff top, at Bant's Carn. Using massy blocks of hewn stone; quarried and then transported to the site. 

The chamber commands a view, out over the open waters of St Mary's Road, to the islands of Samson, Bryher and Tresco.

Crow Rock, and its reef, lie offshore, beneath the cliff edge. In prehistoric times, when sea levels were lower, they would have formed a conspicuous craggy headland, at the feet of the tomb.

A path drops down, from Bant's Carn, toward that rock girt shore. Wild vermillion fuschia dances, in the lightest of sea breezes, among the lush green leaves of the hedgerow. 

I arrive among the ruins of Halangy Down village. A site of human habitation, from the Bronze Age to AD two hundred. Built by a far more recent people, than the granite tomb above.

Nature, in her colourful way, has reclaimed much of the village. One thing is clear, though: the builders of these houses quarried their own stone, leaving those of the nearby burial chamber, untouched. A sign, perhaps, that the site continued to hold significance, for their civilisation, just as it had done for its ancient architects.

Less than a mile, to the west, lies a second cliff top burial chamber. 

It too faces north, with a commanding view across St Mary's Road.

This time toward St Martin's, with its distinctive, modern day, red and white striped daymark, on the skyline.

This chamber too, is set above a conspicuous headland with a, now-submerged, continuation offshore. In this case, the dinosaur backed, Innisidgen, after which the chamber is named, and the Hats reef (marked by the south cardinal buoy, top right, for the sharp eyed navigators amongst you).

Both of the Scillonian stone built chambers are reminiscent, of those which I visited, on Belle Ile, the islands of the Morbihan and the Ile d'Yeu, during Stargazer's 'Living the Dream' cruise, to southern Brittany. This tomb, on Yeu, shares its granite construction and square sided, lidded design, with the two on St Mary's.

Its location too, is similar, to that of the Bant's Carn and Innisidgen tombs. All three have been placed on the northern shore, of an island, with a commanding view out to sea, above a conspicuous rocky headland (at the time of their construction), on a cliff top.

It is difficult not to conclude that, both the Scillonian and Breton mausolea, were constructed by the same civilisation. By a maritime people, who looked seaward. Sharing values and beliefs.  

Their craggy home shores united by the ocean.