Ditch and rampart at Caer Bran hill fort - geograph

Caer Bran Hill Fort is an archaeological site near

Sancreed Sancreed (''Cornish: Eglossankres'') is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Cornwall, England, approximately three miles (5 km) west of Penzance. Sancreed civil parish encompasses the settlements of Bejouans, Bosvennen, ...

and

Carn Euny , alternate_name = , image = CarnEuny1.jpg , alt = Fragments of stone round-houses , caption = Carn Euny ancient village , map_type = Southwest Cornwall , map_alt = , map_size = , location = Brane, Cornwall , region = , coord ...

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostl ...

village, on the

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

peninsula in

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

Site

It is a popular location for walkers and antiquarians because it commands a stunning 360 degree panorama of the southern end of the Penwith peninsula, which probably accounts for its defensive importance. The site consists of an

hill fort A hillfort is a type of earthwork used as a fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze Age or Iron Age. Some were used in the post-Roma ...

which originally included a circular stone-lined inner wall, twelve feet thick, enclosing a space 200 feet in diameter. Surrounding this was a ditch forty-five feet wide and seven feet deep, an earthen rampart fifteen feet high with stone revetment and a slight counterscarp outer bank. There are remnants of a stone-lined causeway over the ditch at the original entrance to the North West adjacent to the ancient trackway linking Penzance with

Land's End Land's End ( kw, Penn an Wlas or ''Pedn an Wlas'') is a headland and tourist and holiday complex in western Cornwall, England, on the Penwith peninsula about west-south-west of Penzance at the western end of the A30 road. To the east of it is ...

. In the centre are the remains of a large circular stone building, of about fifty feet in diameter. There are three

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...

ring cairns within the outer ramparts according to a Cornwall Archaeological Unit Survey. Most of the original stonework was robbed for building purposes during the nineteenth century. The fort was probably built to protect locally mined metals in particular tin, copper and silver before transportation to nearby ports in

Mount's Bay Mount's Bay ( kw, Baya an Garrek) is a large, sweeping bay on the English Channel coast of Cornwall, United Kingdom, stretching from the Lizard Point to Gwennap Head. In the north of the bay, near Marazion, is St Michael's Mount; the origin ...

or the Hayle estuary. It overlooked at least three Iron Age settlements within a half mile radius.

Folklore

The name derives from

Caer Caer (; owl, cair or ') is a placename element in Welsh meaning "stronghold", "fortress", or "citadel", roughly equivalent to an Old English suffix (''-ceaster'') now variously written as , , and .Allen, Grant.