Name: Tregiffian Burial Chamber
Rating: 5.0

Tregiffian Burial Chamber

Penzance, Cornwall TR19 6BQ, UK

1-99 Years

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Description

Tregiffian Burial Chamber is a Neolithic or early Bronze Age chambered tomb with a walled and roofed entrance passage which leads into a central chamber. Tregiffian is a type of chambered tomb known as an entrance grave. It survives largely intact, despite the levelling of part of its mound to make a road in the 1840s.

Entrance graves are funerary and ritual monuments dating to the later Neolithic, early and middle Bronze Age (around 3000–1000 BC). Of 93 recorded examples in England, 79 are on the Isles of Scilly, and the remainder are confined to the Penwith peninsula at the western tip of Cornwall. They are also found on the Channel Islands and in Brittany.

Free Entry. If you are looking for Best place for day out with kids and families then this is the perfect destination offering fun, adventure, and unforgettable memories for everyone.

Features

Free
Host birthday parties: No

Features

History of Tregiffian Burial Chamber: Tregiffian is a type of chambered tomb known as an entrance grave. It survives largely intact, despite the levelling of part of its mound to make a road in the 1840s.
Entrance graves are funerary and ritual monuments dating to the later Neolithic, early and middle Bronze Age (around 3000–1000 BC).
Of 93 recorded examples in England, 79 are on the Isles of Scilly, and the remainder are confined to the Penwith peninsula at the western tip of Cornwall. They are also found on the Channel Islands and in Brittany.
Such tombs typically comprise a roughly circular mound of heaped rubble and earth built over a rectangular chamber, which is constructed from slabs set edge to edge, or rubble walling, and roofed with further slabs.
The few entrance graves that have been systematically excavated have revealed cremated human bone and funerary urns, usually within the chambers but occasionally within the mound.
However, it is by no means certain that they were solely – or even primarily – burial places. Some may have been shrines at which various religious rituals and ceremonies were performed.
Description: Tregiffian is a large entrance grave, with a low, narrow stone-lined chamber; what survives is about two-thirds of the original structure of the chamber.
Internally the chamber measures 16 feet (4.9 metres) long by up to 6 feet (1.9 metres) wide and 3 feet (0.9 metres) high. The walls are built from a combination of edge-set slabs and roughly coursed slabs and rubble. Four massive slabs or capstones span the chamber width to form the roof.
The entrance, at the south-west end, is constricted to 2 feet 7 inches (0.8 metres) wide by two ‘portal’ slabs: one of these is most unusual, as its face is entirely covered by a network of 25 carved hollows – a rare form of prehistoric rock carving called cup marks. This example may be the oldest in the south west. The slab here is a cast of the original, which has been moved for safe keeping to the Royal Cornwall Museum at Truro.

Facilities

Parking: There is a small parking area for the Merry Maidens Stone Circle, a short distance away from the chamber. The chamber can be found by following the road to the south-west. Please take care walking along the grass verge.
Dogs: Dogs on leads are welcome.

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Price

Price: Free

Birthday Parties

Offer Birthday Parties: No

Open any reasonable time during daylight hours.

Address: Penzance, Cornwall TR19 6BQ, UK

Post Code: TR19 6BQ

Council: Cornwall

County: Cornwall

Road Access: Located 2 miles South-East of St Buryan, on B3315.
Bus Access: The nearest bus stop to Tregiffian Burial Chamber is Boskenna (Merry Maidens Stone Circle), from where it is a short walk along the road to the Burial Chamber. Catch First Kernow ‘Lands End Coaster’ bus from Penzance Bus Station. This bus route runs as a circular route in both directions from Penzance. Buses run daily – during the summer months open-top buses are used, and buses run every hour. During the winter months buses run every 2 hours.
Train Access: The nearest station is Penzance (5miles / 9kms). The Lands End Coaster Bus departs from the adjacent Penzance Bus Station.
Bicycle Access: Find this site on The National Cycle Network.
Parking: There is a small parking area for the Merry Maidens Stone Circle, a short distance away from the chamber. The chamber can be found by following the road to the south-west. Please take care walking along the grass verge.