Bosporthennis is a

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...

south of

Treen Treen (literally "of a tree") is a generic name for small handmade functional household objects made of wood. Treen is distinct from furniture, such as chairs, and cabinetry, as well as clocks and cupboards. Before the late 17th century, when sil ...

in the civil parish of

Zennor Zennor (; (village) or (parish)) is a village and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The parish includes the villages of Zennor, Boswednack and Porthmeor and the hamlet of Treen. Zennor lies on the north coast, about no ...

on the

Penwith Penwith (; ) is an area of Cornwall, England, located on the peninsula of the same name. It is also the name of a former Non-metropolitan district, local government district, whose council was based in Penzance. The area is named after one ...

peninsula in west

Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...

, England, United Kingdom.Ordnance Survey: Landranger map sheet 203 ''Land's End''

Antiquities

There is a scattered settlement of at least three

courtyard house A courtyard house is a type of house—often a large house—where the main part of the building is disposed around a central courtyard. Many houses that have courtyards are not courtyard houses of the type covered by this article. For example, ...

s dating from the

Late Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progr ...

at the eastern foot of Hannibal's Carn. The best preserved has walls up to 1.5 metres high, with an adjoining paddock. Another has a late medieval cowhouse built inside its walls. Within the settlement there is a feature called the Bosporthennis Beehive Hut (), which has been identified as an above ground

fogou A fogou or fougou (pronounced "foo-goo") is an underground, dry-stone structure found on Iron Age or Romano-British-defended settlement sites in Cornwall. The original purpose of a fogou is uncertain today. Colloquially called , , , giant holts ...

, similar to the round, subterranean chamber at

Carn Euny Carn Euny (from )Place-names in the Standard Written Form (SWF)

. This identification is considered doubtful, Clark discussed the structure and concluded that it does not possess enough of the usual features of a fogou for it to be regarded as such.MONUMENT NO. 423621
, Pastscape, retrieved 11 November 2013 The Bosporthennis chamber, made of

corbelled In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal keyed into and projecting from a wall to carry a bearing weight, a type of bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in the wall, whereas a console is a piece applie ...

stone, is 4 metres across and is connected to a smaller oblong chamber, originally the entrance, 3.3 metres by 2.1 metres, both are now roofless. Bosporthennis Quoit () is a

portal dolmen A dolmen, () or portal tomb, is a type of single-chamber megalithic tomb, usually consisting of two or more upright megaliths supporting a large flat horizontal capstone or "table". Most date from the Late Neolithic period (40003000 BCE) and we ...

laying within a mound 6 metres across and 0.8 metres high. Three of the original four upright stones survive, of which one is 1.5 metres high, and the chamber is 1.5 by 1.3 metres. The

capstone __NOTOC__ Capstone may refer to: Architecture * Keystone (architecture), also known as a capstone Brands and enterprises * Capstone Investment Advisors, a US investment management firm * Capstone Partners, an investment banking firm * Capstone P ...

currently has a diameter of 1.6 metres, and is very round as it had been trimmed for use as a

millstone Millstones or mill stones are stones used in gristmills, used for triturating, crushing or, more specifically, grinding wheat or other grains. They are sometimes referred to as grindstones or grinding stones. Millstones come in pairs: a s ...

. When excavated in 1872

sherds This page is a glossary of archaeology, the study of the human past from material remains. A B C D E F ...

pottery Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other raw materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. The place where such wares are made by a ''potter'' is al ...

were found alongside

calcined Calcination is thermal treatment of a solid chemical compound (e.g. mixed carbonate ores) whereby the compound is raised to high temperature without melting under restricted supply of ambient oxygen (i.e. gaseous O2 fraction of air), generally fo ...

bones.

References

External links

{{Cornwall, state=collapsed Hamlets in Cornwall Cornish courtyard houses Fogous Zennor