Halliggye Fogou
Iron Age farmers cut this underground passage into a hillside on the Lizard peninsula, one of Cornwall's largest surviving fogous
Open to visitorsan English Heritage site — check opening times and admission before you go
Standing remainssubstantial fabric survives to stand in front of
Fogou is Cornish for cave, and that’s the plainest way to describe what’s underground here — a stone-lined passage cut into a hillside on the Trelowarren estate on the Lizard peninsula. Iron Age farmers built it in the 5th or 4th century BC, as part of a small settlement archaeologists call a round, a scatter of round houses ringed by an earthwork bank. Pottery found nearby suggests people kept living around it for something like 700 years, on into the Roman period.
The purpose of fogous is not known. No fogou in far-west Cornwall is larger or in better shape: a long, narrow, roofed tunnel about 30 metres end to end that opens into three separate chambers.
The fogou is free to see, open through the warmer months; English Heritage closes the passage itself over autumn and winter so the greater horseshoe bats roosting inside aren’t disturbed. Bring a torch if you want to see all the way along it. The Lizard is close by, and Frenchman’s Creek, a couple of miles north-east, is the wooded tidal inlet that gave Daphne du Maurier the title of her novel.
