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cornishbirdblog · 5 years

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There are a handful of man-made landmarks in Cornwall that are unmistakable and unforgettable. Carn Brea Castle is one of these. A tiny fortress perched high on one of our most enigmatic hills it is pretty magical.

Carn Brea Castle stands on the eastern summit of Carn Brea hill, one of the highest points in Cornwall. At 215m (750ft) has a commanding position overlooking the once highly industrial towns of Redruth, Pool and Camborne.

The writer Folliott-Stokes vividly describes the scene in 1931 from St Agnes Beacon another high point on the near by coast.

“Some five or six miles inland we see the abrupt and curiously shaped hill known as Carn Brea, crowned with a lofty monument to the memory of Lord de Dunstanville. Beneath it is a chaos of tall chimneys and above them a pall of smoke. This is the black country of Cornwall and beneath that blue-grey smoke are some of the most famous tin mines in the world . . .”

Carn Brea Hill

The story of the castle is intrinsically linked to story of the hill on which it stands. And Carn Brea Hill alone is fascinating, with so many interesting facets there’s no time to explore them all in too much detail here. But it is important to note, however, that the setting in which Carn Brea Castle finds itself is a particularly special one. There is more than 6000 years of human history on this rocky hill.

The outcrop of Carn Brea was once a major Early-Neolithic settlement and tor enclosure. The people who lived there built a series of huge stone walls, two metres high and at least two metres thick. These walls encircled the central outcrops of the hill and were roughly 700m in length. The evidence of burning and the hundreds of arrowheads found on the hill suggest that the inhabitants were attacked at some point in the settlement’s history.

Of course, the story of the little castle began long after these distant events. But it is thought that some of the granite from the ancient enclosure were used to build its chunky walls. And Carn Brea Castle’s past is full of interest and adventure too. This building has had many varied and colourful lives.

The White Tower

The building that we see today is much larger than the original structure. There have been a number of additions, the last in 1979. The castle first gets a mention in 1478 when William of Worcester writes about “the Tower Castle owned by Sir John Bassett, Knight.”

The true origins of the structure are pretty obscure however. But it has been suggested that Carn Brea Castle’s first life was as a chapel or oratory dedicated to St Michael. Built in around 1379, one hundred years before William of Worcester saw it, the people that constructed the castle could not have chosen a more precarious position. They perched the building high up, straddling the tumble of giant granite boulders.

Early in the castle’s history it’s walls were covered in plaster. The white colour of the little tower may even have led to the name of the hill’s neighbouring parish. Illogan.

Murray writes in 1859:

The Cornish words lug gan signifying the white tower, and lug gan the tower on the downs.

Not everyone liked the white look however:

Recently this fine relic of antiquity has been daubed over with plaster and robbed of all interest . . . The defacement which has first taken place renders it almost ludicrous, especially on the site which it occupies being neither castle nor dwelling.- Cyrus Redding, 1832.

A lighthouse and a folly

In around 1780 the castle was converted into a folly for the Basset Family. Carn Brea Hill was part of their enormous Tehidy Estate and the castle acted as a ‘pleasure house’ and a status symbol. It’s thought that the building was redesigned in a gothic style to be used as a hunting and feasting lodge.

Again it was constructed erratically to incorporate many of the boulders. The layout is irregular, roughly 60ft by 10ft, and now included decorative battlements.

There is a great description of the scene left us by Rev. John Swete, who visited Redruth in 1780.

“Passing through the country, the face of which was extremely deformed by the rubbish thrown up from mines, about six we arrived at Redruth. Being now within a mile of Karnbre Hill – a place I was particularly solicitous of seeing, as it had been in a distinguished manner appropriated to the mysteries of Druidism, and where I learnt were to be seen every variety of those rude monuments consecrated to their worship. I immediately hired a boy to conduct me there and, leaving my companions refreshing themselves in the inn, soon found myself at the foot of the craggy ascent of the Hill. The first object that struck me was the remains of an old Castle situated on a carn at the Eastern end. It had a fine romantic appearance from the ground below and no less a curious one as I approached it. The architect seems to have chosen out the most wild spot on the whole hill. For its erection placing it on the verge of a precipice and on very irregular ledge of huge uneven rocks . . . the Eastern Tower hath quite lost its garb of antiquity having been modernized by the last Mr Bassett without a grain of taste.”

Sometime after the death of Francis Basset in 1835 the castle started being used as a beacon for ships. It’s stunning position means that it is visible from miles around and for much of coast between St Ives and St. Agnes. The West Briton reported in August 1898:

“For a very long the tenant of Carn Brea Castle was bound by a clause in the agreement to show a light in the window towards Tehidy House and consequently facing the Bristol Channel. This beacon light was plainly visible by sailors on the sea on clear nights and was a great service to them in reckoning their position at sea. This clause in the landlord and tenant agreement was faithfully observed for a long period but between ten and fifteen years ago it ceased to be kept in its entirety and the light was extinguished at eleven or twelve o’clock at night.”

A beacon was also lit on the hill, as they were across the country, to celebrate Queen Victoria’s coronation in 1838.

Giants

Legend has it that the rocks beneath where Carn Brea Castle now stands were once the seat of a mighty giant. There are also rock formations across the hill called the Giant’s coffin, the Giant’s head and hand, the Giant’s wheel and the Giant’s cradle.

The legend says that the giant eventually grew old and lay down to die on Carn Brea Hill. He turned to stone and the land passed to the Basset family.

Smuggler’s Tunnel

Legends persist of a lost smuggler’s cave on Carn Brea Hill. It was first mentioned in around 1866 and is not completely improbable as there was said to have been an old smugglers route that ran from Godrevy to Stithians, passing close to Carn Brea. A hollow found between the Castle and the Dunstanville Monument is thought to be the Smugglers’ Cave. From here a tunnel was said to stretch through the hillside to Redruth town or St Euny Church below. This tunnel, now blocked for safety reasons, is more likely to have been a old mine shaft however.

A tumultuous 20th century

After its many early guises as a chapel, a hunting lodge and a lighthouse the 20th century was no less varied for the Castle.

In 1902, according to the West Briton, Carn Brea castle was occupied by an old man and his wife who had lived there for 30 years. They made some extra money by charging visitors a penny each to see the view from the roof.

In 1980 former miner, Mr M. Martin, then 83 years old remembered the castle being used as a little shop where he could buy tobacco and groceries. This shop was run by Fred Pooley and his family until they emigrated to Canada in 1923.

Carn Brea Castle with St Agnes Beacon in distance

In 1944, Carn Brea castle was advertised to let. The advert described it as having:

“Five rooms and a cooker in kitchen. No mains services. Water from well. Telephone. Flat roof battlement for sunbathing. Rough rabbit shooting over 100 acres. Apply E. Carvolth, Bognor Regis.”

Soon after this the castle fell victim to vandals and was said to be in ‘a deplorable state’ by 1957. Luckily it was then sold and restored by Mrs. N. M. Hill. And this led to another lovely episode in the castle’s history which occurred in 1961. The new tenant Miss Wendy Lewis, who was famous for walking from John O’Groats to Land’s End, moved in that September. For some reason the people of Redruth decided to crown her with a garland of heather and daisies that had been gathered on the carn. She was then escorted to the castle by Redruth Town Band for a party to celebrate her arrival.

The Next Tasty Chapter

The next chapter came a few years ago when Carn Brea castle became a restaurant. The 1979 extension allowed space for kitchens and the castle first opened as a restaurant in 1980. The Jordanian Sawalha family are now using this amazing space to dish up delicious middle eastern style food and music.

I think it makes a fabulous place for a meal, although the road to the top can be very rough. The castle is like the Tardis. It is much bigger inside than I expected and very atmospheric. The view from the roof is not to be missed! Even on a misty night, as it was when I was there, it really is spectacular and these days there is no one charging you a penny a head from the privilege.

Further Reading:

St Agnes Beacon

Chapel Carn Brea – Cornwall’s First and Last Hill

Largin Castle – Iron Age Hillfort

The Marvellous Miss Molly’s Tearoom- a rather curious hidden treasure!

Walking Opportunities:

Carn Brea and Great Flat Lode Circular Walk

The history of Carn Brea Castle There are a handful of man-made landmarks in Cornwall that are unmistakable and unforgettable. Carn Brea Castle is one of these.

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aparticularbandit · 1 year

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Ratings system reflects that used on AO3:

G - General Audience - A kid could read this, but it doesn't mean they'd enjoy it.

T - Teen - Roughly PG-13.

M - Mature - What it says on the tin: This is a maturity call. Sometimes may be sexual content (non-explicit; fade-to-black), sometimes graphic violence, often we're just dealing with some literally dark themes here.

Where a fic is labeled as Mature, the reasoning will be included. Sexual content means definitely they make out but in vague-ish terms. Graphic sexual content means someone is literally touching boobies. It does not mean smut. I do not write smut. Either one can mean fade-to-black situations, but not always. Sometimes it's honestly just heavy making out, vague terms or not.

THERE ARE NO EXPLICIT FICS ON THIS BLOG. I do not write explicit sexual content. I do not write smut. All sexual situations eventually fade to black. Some just take longer than others. Triggers are not mentioned on this page but are found in the fic proper. Some chapters of fics are more triggering than others, etc.

Finding Family Universe:

Finding Family When America begins universe-hopping again to try and find her moms, she realizes that’s too much scope for her, and instead she finds Wanda. Post-DSMOM fix-it fic Wanda Maximoff & America Chavez; Wanda Maximoff & Wanda Maximoff variants; Wanda Maximoff & Agatha Harkness; Wendy Maximoff/America Chavez Rating: T until Part 5; M in Part 5 due to adult themes, violence, sexual content, and vague/implied nudity. Complete

The Finding Family Holiday Special! In which 616!Wanda hosts a New Year’s Eve party, and there are not nearly enough party shenanigans, but there’s a whole lot of talking. Goes between Parts Four and Five of Finding Family, so obviously contains spoilers for that. (Does show up in Finding Family tag in the proper place; this is just for separate reading purposes.) Post-DSMOM fix-it fic Wanda Maximoff & America Chavez; Wanda Maximoff & Wanda Maximoff variants; Wendy Maximoff/America Chavez Rating: T. Complete

Multiversal Variants Basically a What If…? for Finding Family - scenes that could have gone a different way than what happened in the fic, some with more drastic results than others. Wanda Maximoff & America Chavez; Wanda Maximoff/Agatha Harkness Rating: M for graphic sexual content and nudity. Incomplete

The Thrall of Decades:

Kisses Through The Decades The world is full of various shades of grey - charcoal, smoke, silver, ash, pewter, steel, iron, and so on. For all the black and white, there is relatively little of that. Agnes’s hair trends as dark a grey as the world allows, but even it isn’t a pure black. The closest to that is the ribbon tied tight around her waist, accenting the narrowness of it, the hourglass shape of her. Wanda’s hands have found that waist far too many times to count at this point, if only to usher her out of the kitchen when she’s stayed - not past her welcome, because that sounds rude, but…well, past her welcome. Problem being, of course, that the more Wanda guides her by the waist out of the kitchen and through the back door, the more her hands find a proper place there. WandaVision; Five Times Kissed; Canon-Compliant Wanda Maximoff/Agatha Harkness Rating: M for sexual content. Complete start here

The Thrall of Magic Being an accomplished witch is all about manipulation. Or love. But only a fool would fall in love with magic. (Agatha Harkness is a three hundred year old imbecile who has been in love with magic since she first felt its gentlest touch and who has forgotten that some magic can be just as manipulative as the one who twisted it.) WandaVision; Five Times Kissed; Canon-Compliant Agatha Harkness/Wanda Maximoff Rating: M for upcoming sexual content. Incomplete start here

The First Snowfall Wanda loses Agatha and finds her outside in the snow. WandaVision; Holiday Fic; Canon-Compliant Wanda Maximoff/Agatha Harkness Rating: T.

Soulmates Universe: Rating: M for adult themes and graphic sexual content.

The Nature of Soulmates You remember the faintest flickering of flame. There’s a shimmer to it, soft, in the middle of your chest - a wholly lavender glow, threaded through with a deeper, darker violet, and when it flicks here and there, as flames are wont to do, the tips turn a thick, clotted black. If you concentrate just past the bright lavender in the center of it, you can almost make out the shape of an open hand, fingers that same inky blackness sketching webbing in your skin, and beyond that, the image of a face with features that you can’t make out, with haunted eyes with deep ashen bags beneath them, and with hair of a much warmer shade flickering, like flame, in a faint breeze that you cannot feel. For a moment, you consider that the face, though determined and sad, seems beautiful. Then you wake. Agatha Harkness/Reader Wanda Maximoff/Reader Soulmate AU Incomplete start here

Reader’s Previous Lives: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5)

Agave (Agatha Harkness/Eve Fletcher) Stuff: Rating: M for adult themes, graphic sexual content, and nudity. Buddy, if you can't see Mrs. Fletcher, then you shouldn't be reading these.

A Beginning

Thunderstorms

Agatha Should Probably Take Eve on a Date

DATE TIME FINALLY WOO

THE MORNING AFTER WOO

Comfort

Worth

We Take A Break So Eve and Agatha Can Discuss Claire

Agatha/Cian Backstory Pt. 1

Agatha/Cian Backstory Pt. 2

Agatha/Cian Backstory Pt. 3

Business Trip (Agatha)

Post-Business Trip (Agatha)

Ted Fucking Sucks

AGAVE DATE 2.0 - NOW WITH MORE ISSUES!

Handcuffs and Fireworks

Creepers Gonna Creep

Agatha/Cian Backstory Pt.4

Agatha/Cian Backstory Pt. 5

Agatha/Cian Backstory Pt. 6

Agatha/Cian Backstory Pt.7

Agatha/Cian Backstory Pt. 8

Agatha Buys A Birthday Present

Agatha Buys A Birthday Present Pt. 2

Christmas Traditions

A Sea Psalm for a Penitent Soul: Rating: M for adult themes.

Prelude Agnes was never supposed to exist. Even in those first few seconds, feeling your jaw move despite your trying to clench it shut, feeling it snap the bones of your concept of self while maintaining the physical presence of them, as Agnes calls Wanda hot stuff– You reach up to fiddle with your brooch except you don’t reach up to fiddle with your brooch no matter how much you try to make your arm move because Agnes doesn’t want to fiddle with your brooch so you can’t fiddle with your brooch. You scratch and claw at the imperceptible– You can’t even do that because whatever the essence of you is in this moment has no hands, has no mouth, cannot scream. Wanda’s grief weighs you with every nothing you have, your only anchor when waves of worth come to you, ripping them one by one until you remember how worthless you are. It’s hard to maintain panic when you realize that maybe this is what you deserve. Being the Prologue - the Framing Device - for a series meant to explore Agatha Harkness, who she is, who she was, and how she came to Westview.

Stanza One: Paved with Good Intentions When Agatha Harkness is barely ten years old, she witnesses the trial - and execution - of a woman who’d looked after her since she was a baby. As accusations from outsiders fly and as Agatha struggles with controlling her own dark magic, the world she knows and depends on is ripped out from under her.

Glass Onion Fam Fluff:

Birdie Dresses Claire Because someone has to get Claire out of all that beige, and who better than the fam’s fantastic fashionista? Rating: T for brief (non-sexual) nudity.

Essence Something in the center of Claire’s chest tightens. Maybe she was wrong. When he said people like us, he must have just thought she was gay, not like him. Maybe she shouldn’t have– He smiles. “Hey, Claire. Nice to finally meet you.” Then he leans up, brushes a hand through her too short hair, and, without hesitation, kisses her. It’s the first time she’s ever been kissed in her life. None of the others count, because they weren’t kissing her. This is the first one that does. Rating: T.

Happy? Birthday? Claire? Claire doesn’t want a birthday party and tells Birdie so. Rating: T.

Multichapter Fics:

Fragments of Color If the world is black and white, Agnes sticks out like a thorn-pricked thumb, blood pricking scarlet from skin otherwise drained of life, and Wanda aches to suck the venom from her veins, unaware that it would be useless to try. WandaVision rewrite Wanda Maximoff/Agatha Harkness; Wanda Maximoff/Vision Rating: T. Incomplete

Be Mine, Valentine The first time Claire Valentine laid eyes on Eve Mackie, she knew she was in love. Of course, the first time Claire saw Eve, she was all of six years old, a tiny little scrap of a thing in a body that didn’t feel quite so uncomfortable yet, in skin that didn’t feel quite so stretched thin. She wasn’t even Claire yet; sometimes she took her mother’s name out and tried it on the same way that you or I might pull out fine china for special occasions (or our most favorite hoodie on rainy days when we just want to crawl back into bed and cover our head), but it never fit just right. Over the years, Claire expected that Eve forgot about her. Forgot that they’d almost been married, forgot that she’d promised to be Mrs. Valentine. She tried to forget about her, too, just like she tried to be anyone other than Claire, to fit into the skin that her father sketched out for her. But the more she tried, the thinner it grew, until she felt like she was splitting. Then her parents died, and everything changed. Agave Stuff AU Claire Debella/Eve Fletcher Rating: Undetermined; likely T or above. start here

Stolen Agatha said that Wanda's spell was flawed. If she'd been a better witch, if she'd known her craft, then she could have created the boys - recreated Vision - separate from the spell that maintained the Hex. After everything, Wanda is willing to let Vision rest, but she wants her boys back. But when Wanda finishes the spell, there's something else missing: a certain nosy next-door neighbor who had become what she'd considered her best friend before everything fell apart. She won't let the spell be flawed this time. Everything will be perfect. Even Agnes. Canon-Compliant/Post-Canon to WandaVision; Ignores DSMOM. Slow burn, enemies to lovers Agatha Harkness/Wanda Maximoff Rating: M for adult themes, particularly regarding loss of bodily autonomy. start here

One-Shots:

don’t fret precious, i’m here / step away from the window / and go / back to sleep What if Wanda won? Post-DSMOM Wanda Maximoff & Billy Kaplan & Tommy Shepherd Rating: T.

Canon!Agatha Meets Pregnant!Eve Exactly what it says on the tin. Agatha Harkness/Eve Fletcher Rating: T.

Consumption Continuation of To Be Devoured. Agatha Harkness/Wanda Maximoff Rating: M for adult themes and non-sexual nudity.

Clubbing Amanda convinces Eve to go to a club for the first time, and Eve meets you. Eve Fletcher/Reader Rating: M for graphic sexual content.

Holiday Fics 2022:

Letters to Santa (Agave Edition) Rating: G.

Letters to Santa (Glass Onion Fam Edition) Rating: T.

Catching Snowflakes feat. Glass Onion Fam Rating: T.

The First Snowfall feat. Harximoff Rating: T.

To Be Devoured feat. Harximoff Rating: M for adult themes, graphic sexual content, and nudity.

Christmas Traditions feat. Agave Rating: T.

Agatha Has A Dream feat. Agave Rating: G.

Fulfilled Prompts:

Agnes/Agatha Angst Rating: M for adult themes.

Harximoff Angst + Roisa Angst Rating: T.

Glass Onion Fam Angst (THIS HAS SPOILERS) Rating: T.

Roisa Jealousy Rating: T.

Harximoff Jealousy (featuring Fietro) Rating: T.

Harximoff Jealousy (featuring Dennis) Rating: T.

Glass Onion Spoilers Fic:

Take A Sad Song and Make It Better Miles almost hit Duke when he left Andi’s place. He didn’t stay to make sure that Andi actually died. What if, in all of the attempts to get into the house, one of them heard the car still rumbling in the garage? What if Andi didn’t die? Glass Onion fix-it fic Rating: T. Incomplete start here

#musings #bandit does an update #bandit fic masterlist

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