Home > Chysauster Ancient Village

The village was believed to have been constructed and occupied between 100 BC and 400 AD; it was primarily agricultural and unfortified and probably occupied by members of the Dumnonii tribe..

The village included eight stone dwellings, arranged in pairs along a street, each with its own garden plot. The houses are oval shaped and around 28m long. Their walls survive to heights of up to 3m. Small chambers lead off from the main courtyards of each house which served as working and living areas. A field system in the vicinity attests to its farming connections. The nearby hill fort of Castle-an-Dinas may have been a contemporary refuge for the occupants of the village in times of strife.

It has been excavated on many occasions, and some of the reinstatement work which have been carried out over the years has been unsympathetic. Several sections of the village were incorrectly reinstated in the wake of previous excavations.

Controversy over the site

The fogou nearby was filled in by English Heritage in the 1980s in an attempt to prevent it from caving in, a move which was unpopular with the local community.

In the 1990s, archaeologist Craig Weatherill questioned the then head of English Heritage, Lord Montagu, about the dilapidation of the fogou. His response was : "It's not as if it's Stonehenge, is it?"

It should be noted that English Heritage were not the only modern agency to affect the Chysauster site; negligent reinstatement work in the wake of earlier excavations resulted in the incorrect placement of some stone walls.