There are many other ancient structures and settlements in the area as can be seen on the map above.

The inner entrance photographed from point D on the Plan, little remains of the staggered outer entrance.

Chun Castle is an Iron Age Hill Fort built about 2400 years ago within a few miles of Land's End. The name is a short form of Chy-an-Woon which means house on the downs.

Plan of Chun Castle

The small radial walls and thin ring shown on the plan indicate the location of small huts around a central open courtyard.

Many of the boulders used to build the walls weigh several tons and the whole construction must have been a huge effort of labour.

Why so much effort? - It is thought that the fort was built as a holding place for tin and copper which was gathered in huge quantities from shallow workings all around the area. Evidence of a furnace was found and an oval tin ingot weighing 11 pounds. Mediterranean pottery dating between 2100 and 1800 yrs old has also been found indicating the range of trading.

The ingots of metal would have been transported along hill top trackways to the trading port of Marazion near Penzance.

Why build on a hill? - The video shows how commanding the view was.

Although much of the lowland would have been wooded until medieval times the hill slopes would have been clear and it would have been difficult to make a surprise attack. The sea approaches to the trading port were also visible so metals may have been stored until trading vessels were seen to be approaching.

This map made in 1888 shows the track down to Bosullow iron age village clearly. Chun Quoit (marked as Chun Cromlech) can also be seen.

It is likely that the fort was not intended for permanent occupation as a dwelling but was a working place with the workers and their families living a few hundred meters away at Bosullow.

The field boundaries marked on this map still exist and enclose small fields many of which were probably created during the bronze age.

Although the fort is on a hilltop there is a good water source, the well has never been known to dry up completely even in the harshest drought years. Somewhat dilapidated today but it used to have a series of steps leading down to the water. I helped clean it out a few years ago and we found quite few coins including old threepenny bits and florins from last century. There was also an ancient rubbing stone which may have been used for grinding grain into flour.

The trackway in this photo leads down from Chun Castle to Bosullow village. The village is in the rough ground to the right of the post. Bosullow is a courtyard village similar to Carn Euny and is of a similar age to the castle. The adjacent farm name is Trehyllys which means "farm of the ancient court" suggesting that the village was very important.

Tin ore found within a few miles of Chun castle. The Tin is in the form of cassiterite (grey/black) veins and is associated with Quartz (dirty white) and unidentifiable iron rich minerals (redish). Rocks like these would have been crushed then melted in a furnace. A small amount of tin added to copper makes bronze which is much harder than copper or tin and holds a good cutting edge.

This cassiterite is purer as it has no iron staining and would have been easier to process than the other sample. It is also in a vein of quartz. The scale is similar to the photo on the left.

The present ruinous state of Chun Castle is due to it's having been used as a source of stone - records show that the granite used to pave the streets of Penzance came from here.

This stone lying inside the enclosure shows old drill holes of uncertain age. Miners and stone masons used to have competitions to see who could drill the quickest hole and it is thought that stones like these were the result. This may date from the period when stone was being robbed and used in Penzance - Granite is heavy and it would make sense to have split and dressed large stone to reduce its weight before transporting it. The flat surface is natural which makes it ideal for paving unlike a lot of the granite in this part of Cornwall.