Caer Bran: Under New Ownership

Caer Bran is an Iron Age hillfort, located near the village of Sancreed in West Penwith, Cornwall. The site encloses a space some 200 feet in diameter. Surrounding this is a ditch forty-five feet wide and seven feet deep, an earthen rampart fifteen feet high with stone revetment and a slight counterscarp outer bank. There are remnants of a stone-lined causeway over the ditch at the original entrance to the North West adjacent to an ancient trackway. There are three Bronze Age ring cairns within the outer ramparts, and three settlements within half a mile, including Carn Euny.  

The Cornwall Heritage Trust have recently announced that they have purchased nine hectares of land at Caer Bran, which includes the hillfort and a range of later agricultural and mining remains.

The Chariman of CHT, Lt Col Richard Trant announced:

“The Trust has been tracking the Caer Bran property for many years and we were hugely excited when it came back on the market over the Christmas period. It is therefore tremendously pleasing that we have now secured this very special site for the future.

Caer Bran is a property which, as an example of Iron Age presence in Cornwall, has great archaeological importance. Equally, it gives sanctuary to some wonderful flora and fauna, our natural heritage, that the Trust will also protect and nurture. 

Caer Bran is a jewel of a site which complements our adjacent sites in West Penwith. Its purchase aligns perfectly with our recently reviewed strategic purpose to protect and preserve Cornish heritage sites for ‘One and All’. I would like to thank the CHT team for their hard work to secure Caer Bran and also a big thank you to Historic England for their potential support of this Cornish gem.”

We last visited Caer Bran in 2013, and you can read about our visit here.