Tregiffian Burial Chamber, St Buryan, Cornwall
Tregiffian Burial Chamber is a large Neolithic or Early Bronze Age entrance grave. The grave is a mound, 15 metre in diameter with an edge of large stones and funerary chamber (tomb) inside. The chamber is reached along a passage that is walled and roofed with stone slabs called capstones. Documentary sources tell us that the mound was damaged by people making a road in the 1840's. It was partly excavated by W. C. Borlase in 1871. Further excavations were carried in 1967-8 and 1972. These indicated that there may have been two phases to construction. During the first phase the mound was surrounded by a circular kerb of stones but during the second phase these were moved to form an irregular plan in front of the chamber entrance. Evidence of Neolithic occupation was discovered below the mound. It is thought that the mound was built as an entrance tomb in the late Neolithic period and was altered in the Early Bronze Age. This site is now in the care of English Heritage (2010). Find out more
