Settlement in the Iron Age
In Cornwall the Iron Age is usually taken to run from roughly 800 BC until the Roman period, though dates are approximate and Roman influence was limited in the far south-west. Compared with the monuments of earlier periods, Iron Age remains are less concerned with burial and ceremony and more with daily life: where people lived, farmed and defended themselves.
The landscape contained several kinds of site, and it is helpful to separate defended places from ordinary homes, while remembering the two sometimes overlap.
Hillforts
A hillfort is a hilltop enclosed by one or more banks and ditches, often with a stone or earth rampart. Cornish examples include Chûn Castle in the far west, Trencrom Hill near the north coast of the west, and Castle-an-Dinas, among others. Many follow the natural contours of a summit, and the ramparts are often best seen as low, tumbled lines of stone or grassy banks today.
Why were they built? Defense is the obvious answer, and the entrances are often carefully designed. But archaeologists point out that hillforts probably served more than one purpose. Some may have been permanent villages, some may have been gathering places or centers of local power, and some may have been used only in times of tension. Others reuse earlier tor enclosures, so a hilltop can have a very long history. As is true across prehistoric Cornwall, a site’s purpose can change over time, and a single label can be misleading.
Cliff castles
Along the coast, a different kind of defended site cuts off a headland with banks and ditches across the neck. These promontory forts, often called cliff castles, use the sea cliffs as natural protection on the other sides. Trevelgue Head on the north coast is one frequently cited example. Because coastal erosion has removed parts of some headlands, the surviving banks may be only part of the original site, and visiting the Cornish coast safely means staying well back from edges.
Rounds
Across much of Cornwall the most common settlement was the round: a small farmstead enclosed by a rounded bank and ditch, often with a handful of buildings inside. Hundreds are known or suspected, many identified from aerial photographs or from the curved field boundaries that later preserved their outline. Rounds are generally interpreted as the homes of extended families or small farming communities, with the enclosure keeping animals in and perhaps marking status. Many remained in use into the Roman period and beyond.
Round houses
The characteristic dwelling of the Iron Age was the round house, a circular building with a conical roof. In timber-rich regions these survive only as postholes. In Cornwall, stone was plentiful, so many wall foundations remain. Typical features include a low stone wall, a central or off-center hearth, and a doorway often facing away from the prevailing weather. The roof was probably thatch or turf on a timber frame, though the exact materials are inferred from comparison and not directly observed.
Round houses did not stand alone. Excavations of Cornish settlements typically find pottery, grinding stones for grain, spindle whorls for textiles and sometimes evidence of metalworking. These everyday finds suggest mixed farming, with crops, livestock and small-scale craft work. The local granite foundations also anticipate a long building tradition that later produced granite cottages, although there is no direct line of continuity.
Courtyard houses
In west Cornwall, particularly on the Penwith peninsula, a distinctive type developed in the late Iron Age and into the Roman period: the courtyard house. These are stone-walled homes arranged around an open yard, with rooms opening off it, sometimes including a larger oval room. Chysauster, near Penzance, is the best-known surviving group and is cared for as a public site. Carn Euny nearby offers another example of a village with a fogou.
Courtyard houses are often described as a regional speciality, with few close parallels elsewhere in Britain, which reflects both local building traditions and the stone available. The layout suggests household organization around shared outdoor space and perhaps livestock or garden plots, though the use of individual rooms is debated.
Fogous
A fogou is an underground passage, lined and roofed with stone, found at some Iron Age settlements in the far west. Their purpose is uncertain. Suggestions include storage, refuge, drainage and ritual use, and the word itself comes from a Cornish term for a cave. Different fogous may have had different functions, and conclusions are hard to draw.
What we do and do not know
Archaeologists can describe the structures and artifacts, but there are limits. We do not know the names these people used, how they governed themselves, or what they believed. Stories connecting hillforts with legendary rulers belong to later tradition, including Arthurian Cornwall, and are not supported by Iron Age evidence. Classical writers mention Britain’s tin trade, which may have encouraged contact across the sea, but how much that affected life in a given round is unclear.
Visiting sites
Some sites, such as Chysauster, are managed and have clear access. Others are on open land or private farmland. Check current information, follow signs, use public footpaths and avoid climbing on ramparts or walls, which can be fragile. Hillfort summits can be exposed, and cliff castles lie close to unfenced drops. Take care in changing weather, and remember that old mine workings often sit near prehistoric sites.