Bartinney Castle is an

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 progre ...

enclosure located in 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 of Southwest

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, it is surrounded by a circular earthwork standing on a hill surrounded by various archaeological prehistoric remains, including ancient settlements, field systems,

tumuli A tumulus (: tumuli) is a mound of Soil, earth and Rock (geology), stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds, mounds, howes, or in Siberia and Central Asia as ''kurgans'', and may be found through ...

and

cairn A cairn is a human-made pile (or stack) of stones raised for a purpose, usually as a marker or as a burial mound. The word ''cairn'' comes from the (plural ). Cairns have been and are used for a broad variety of purposes. In prehistory, t ...

s. One mile to the southwest is Carn Brea, the westernmost hill in Britain; and a mile to the southeast is

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

village and

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 ...

, and the neighbouring Caer Bran

hillfort A hillfort is a type of fortification, fortified refuge or defended settlement located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typical of the late Bronze Age Europe, European Bronze Age and Iron Age Europe, Iron Age. So ...

and Sancreed Beacon. On the hilltop are the remains of a circular bank, about 250 feet across, and an encircling ditch. This bank may have been much higher and there are suggestions the site could have been a

sacred enclosure In the study of the history of religions and anthropology, a sacred enclosure refers to any structure intended to separate two spaces: a sacred space and a profane space. Generally, it is a separation wall erected to mark the difference between t ...

or Plen an Gwarry, which was a type of

amphitheatre An amphitheatre (American English, U.S. English: amphitheater) is an open-air venue used for entertainment, performances, and sports. The term derives from the ancient Greek ('), from ('), meaning "on both sides" or "around" and ('), meani ...

with rows of stone seats where feast days or

fire festival is an annual professional wrestling round-robin tournament held by Pro Wrestling Zero1 to determine the top wrestler in the promotion, typically contested in late July/early August. Within the English-speaking professional wrestling world, the ...

s celebrating the

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

solar god, Belenos, were held or where

mystery plays Mystery plays and miracle plays (they are distinguished as two different forms although the terms are often used interchangeably) are among the earliest formally developed plays in medieval Europe. Medieval mystery plays focused on the represe ...

were staged. Other theories suggest a large

disc barrow A disc barrow is a type of tumulus or round barrow, a variety of fancy barrow identified in English Heritage's Monument Class Descriptions. A disc barrow comprises a circular or oval-shaped flat platform, defined by a continuous earthen bank an ...

or an unfinished

hill fort A hillfort is a type of fortification, fortified refuge or defended settlement located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typical of the late Bronze Age Europe, European Bronze Age and Iron Age Europe, Iron Age. So ...

; the outer wall is not high enough to have been of any defensive value. In the centre of the enclosure are three smaller circles arranged in a triangle, originally made of contiguous stones which have since been removed. The largest of these is forty feet in diameter; the other two are about 25 and 30 feet across. Local parish records suggest that Bartinney Castle was the site of a

marking the harvest or

Samhain Samhain ( , , , ) or () is a Gaels, Gaelic festival on 1 November marking the end of the harvest season and beginning of winter or the "Celtic calendar#Medieval Irish and Welsh calendars, darker half" of the year.Dáithí Ó hÓgáin, Ó hÓ ...

, the Celtic New Year's Day.

The name Bartinè signifies the lighted eminence, or the hill of fires (Cornish - ''Bretanow''). The Druids, it is said, had their fires on the eve of November, when the people were obliged to resort and re-kindle the private fires in their houses from the consecrated fires of the Druids, the domestic fire having been first carefully extinguished. On Midsummer's Day, in recent times, the inhabitants, of this parish were greeted with sounds resembling the discharge of musketry in different directions, proceeding from holes bored in rocks, which being charged with powder were exploded in succession; and on the same day a new flag was displayed on every mine, and the night was ushered in with noisy festivities, and bonfires blazing on many of the hills.

The name may also be derived from Tinne, the Druid name for the holly tree, the burning of which was associated with the death of the old year and the coming of the new one on

or 31 October.https://sites.google.com/site/lookingforthegoodinit/ogham/t-tinne-holly Tinne also means a metal ingot or iron bar according to the

Bríatharogam In early Irish literature, a ''Bríatharogam'' ("word ogham", plural ''Bríatharogaim'') is a two-word kenning which explains the meanings of the names of the letters of the Ogham alphabet. Three variant lists of ''bríatharogaim'' or "word-ogham ...

References

{{coord, 50.106474, N, 5.645986, W, region:GB_source:enwiki-osgb36(SW407290), display=title Hill forts in Cornwall History of Cornwall Iron Age sites in Cornwall Prehistoric sites in Cornwall