Boleigh Fogou - Lamorna
Boleigh Fougou is situated in the grounds of Boleigh House in the sheltered Lamorna valley just south of Penzance. Thought to be around three thousand years old, Boleigh Fougou is one of the better examples of these mysterious underground tunnels, although the roof has collapsed at the end of the main passage. In the 1990s, Channel Four's Time Team investigated the area around the fougou and discovered the remains of an early Iron Age house enclosed by an oval wall. The fougou was probably used for rituals and ceremonies by the inhabitants of the house, although nobody knows for sure. The nearby landscape is rich in Neolithic, Bronze Age and Iron Age remains, including the Merry Maidens stone circle and Tregiffian burial chamber.
The fougou, which is nearly forty feet long and six feet high, is essentially a deep trench lined with dry stone walls and roofed with big stone slabs. As well as the main trench, Boleigh Fougou has a small side chamber, whose external entrance is now blocked, and a carving of a figure with it's right arm raised up and holding an object that may be a spear. Boleigh Fougou was apparently used during the English civil war as a hiding place for Royalists fleeing the Parliamentary army as it attacked Penzance.
Boleigh House, which is set in seven acres of attractive woodland, provides guest house and self-catering accomodation. Non-residents are asked to phone in advance to arrange a suitable time to visit the fougou
