Details

The monument includes a round, situated on the summit of a small coastal ridge, overlooking the Gwavas Lake area of Mounts Bay. The unusual bivallate round survives as two concentric circular enclosures, the outer measuring up to 120m in diameter and the inner approximately 63m. The enclosures are defined by ramparts with outer ditches which are preserved differentially. The western part of the inner rampart survives as a bank of up to 2m high and 2m wide which has modern revetting; the eastern part survives as a scarp measuring from 6m to 12m wide and 0.5m high. The outer rampart survives as a bank, fossilised within field boundaries in the north western and eastern quadrants only. Elsewhere all features, structures and deposits, including both the inner and outer ditches, are preserved as buried features.

On the eastern side of the inner rampart are two upright stones. The northern one is 1.8m high and the other 1.6m high. The original purpose of these stones is unclear.

First described and illustrated by WC Borlase in around 1870, the round was listed in the Victoria County History and appears on early Ordnance Survey maps. Crawford visited in 1936 and noted then that it was subject to cultivation. It is named on some maps as a 'Faugan' and as a result is known locally as 'Faugan Round' although where the name derived is not clear and it is no longer recognised as a generic term for such a feature and appears to have no significance as a Cornish word.

Sources: HER:-
PastScape Monument No:-422051

Source: Historic England

Reasons for Scheduling

Rounds are small embanked enclosures, one of a range of settlement types dating to between the later Iron Age and the early post-Roman period. Usually circular or oval, they have a single earth and rubble bank and an outer ditch, with one entrance breaking the circuit. Excavations have produced drystone supporting walls within the bank, paved or cobbled entrance ways, post built gate structures, and remains of timber, turf or stone built houses of oval or rectangular plan, often set around the inner edge of the enclosing bank. Other evidence includes hearths, drains, gullies, pits and rubbish middens. Evidence for industrial activities has been recovered from some sites, including small scale metal working and, among the domestic debris, items traded from distant sources. Some rounds are associated with secondary enclosures, either abutting the round as an annexe or forming an additional enclosure. Rounds are viewed primarily as agricultural settlements, the equivalents of farming hamlets. They were replaced by unenclosed settlement types by the 7th century AD. Over 750 rounds are recorded in the British Isles, occurring in areas bordering the Irish Seas, but confined in England to south west Devon and especially Cornwall. Most recorded examples are sited on hillslopes and spurs. Rounds are important as one of the major sources of information on settlement and social organisation of the Iron Age and Roman periods in south west England. Despite reduction in the height of the ramparts through cultivation, the round 280m WNW of Higher Faugan Hotel is unusual because it is bivallate and not of the more usual single rampart, or rampart with annexe type it will contain archaeological and environmental evidence relating to its construction, development, longevity, trade, agricultural practices, social organisation, territorial significance, domestic arrangements and overall landscape context.

Source: Historic England