In contrast to the abundance of natural beauty we witness in Cornwall today, its very distant past includes times of arid desserts, mass earth movements, extreme climate changes and chaotic volcanic activity. Fortunately for us, many millions of years ago this most spectacular land came to rest where it remains at present.
Cornwall is now dominated by its granite backbone, a result of molten lava working its way upward and spilling over its volcanic peaks, to then slowly cool over the course of approximately 250 million years and form the exposed granite intrusions we see today.
This mountain range spine cuts right
through the heart of the county in an east
to west direction. It gradually declines in altitude from its highest point on Bodmin Moor, all the way down through St Austell, Cambourne, Redruth, Penzance, Lands End and on to The Isles of Scilly. And at these highest points of the county is where we see the majority of its exquisite megalithic and ancient stone architecture.
A small area known as Penwith in the county's far south-west corner contains possibly the finest collection and highest concentration of ancient stone monuments for its size within the whole of Europe.
This beautifully remote part of Cornwall
sits predominantly on granite bedrock, approx 130metres above see level, and is almost entirely cut off from the rest of England by The River Hayle.
At the other side of the county to the
north is yet another area of Cornwall's ancient stone abundance. On Bodmin moor
a vast array of prehistoric oddities
scatter the rugged, windswept landscape.
These also boast the epic and imposing presence of Roughtor and Brown Willy
(or 'Bronn Wenneli' - 'Hill of Swallows')
for the most part acting as their back-drop, magnificently looming over from all angles.
Evidently Cornwall was a very significant
player within this most fascinating time
in prehistory, and with its unique granite
stone taking centre stage. Granite that is
still sort after all over the world to
this day; both for its mineral richness
and aesthetic beauty.
This stone's very rich deposits of tin
(needed in the production of bronze)
are thought to have put Cornwall at the
heart of the Bronze Age, and potentially even impossible without it.
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