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The Giant's Craw

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The Pennance chamber, known locally as the Giant’s Craw or Giant’s House, is a prehistoric entrance grave near Zennor in West Cornwall. It stands in a field on the eastern slopes of the Penwith moors, between Zennor and Treen. The monument is well preserved, with a mound about 8 metres across and nearly 2 metres high. Around the mound are prominent granite kerbstones, while the internal chamber remains covered by large stone slabs. Pennance is an example of a Scillonian style entrance grave, a monument type found mainly on the Isles of Scilly and in nearby parts of mainland Cornwall. These graves are usually formed from a cairn or mound containing a stone built chamber entered from one side. The Pennance chamber is unusually long in relation to the size of the mound, extending about 4 metres and facing towards the southeast. This type of tomb is rare in England, although similar forms are known in parts of Scotland, Ireland, and the Isle of Man. The site has attracted antiquarian and archaeological interest for more than a century. In 1883, members of the Penzance Natural History and Antiquarian Society visited the monument and recorded local information about its use. A man named Mr Cornish recalled that the chamber had once been used as a calf shelter, with signs of that practical use still visible. He also mentioned similar barrows near Treen that had been adapted for uses such as pig housing and fern storage. In 1950, archaeologist Glyn Daniel listed Pennance as one of only four confirmed mainland entrance graves then recognised. Unlike many local megalithic monuments whose mounds have been removed, Pennance retains much of its original cairn. The mound includes exposed cairn stones and appears to have been adapted to the slope of the ground, which falls from south to north. The southern kerbstones are larger than those on the northern side, possibly because the stones were graded towards the chamber entrance. Several large stones on top of the mound may be displaced kerbstones, suggesting that the monument has been altered or disturbed at some point. The chamber measures about 4 metres long, 1.4 metres wide, and 0.75 metres high. Its walls are built from dry stone, supporting large roofing slabs that form a low passage. The chamber is not placed centrally within the mound but is skewed towards the south, perhaps because of the slope of the hillside. Access today is difficult because of the low height of the passage, and permission from Pennance Farm is required for close visits. The site can also be seen from the nearby B3306 road near Zennor.

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