There are two magnificent and well-preserved courtyard house settlements in West Penwith: Carn Euny and Chysauster. Courtyard houses are only found in this area and the Isles of Scilly and are notable for their arrangements of multiple rooms (originally with thatched roofs) surrounding a central courtyard. The houses lined streets – at Chysauster nine houses formed two rows with a winding street between. These settlements are called Romano-British but in fact predate the Romans (who never got far into the south-west anyway) and were occupied from the late Iron Age into the 4th C. Both Carn Euny and Chysauster also feature the enigmatic “fogou,” stone-walled underground passages also restricted to this part of Britain.
The structures of the houses included fireplaces (some with evidence of smelting metal), stone-lined drains, socketed stones used to mill grain and perhaps to hold a roof support, and floors paved with rough granite slabs. Chysauster was built on a sloping south-west facing hillside and is surrounded by an older Iron Age field system.
Flat Two 