Trevelgue Head, usually called Porth Island, is the headland beside Porth on the eastern side of Newquay. Its earthworks, rocky edges and narrow connection with the mainland make the place memorable before you know anything about its archaeology.
The headland preserves evidence from more than one period. Bronze Age burial monuments preceded the substantial Iron Age defended settlement. Excavation revealed roundhouses and important evidence of ironworking: this was somewhere people lived and made things, not simply a spectacular position from which to admire the sea.
Its later stories include caves, a blowhole and Victorian entertainments around the Porth coast. Keep those separate from the ancient settlement. A nineteenth-century concert in a cave does not explain an Iron Age furnace, even if both make a good story on the same walk.
The pin identifies the archaeological headland. Use the established approach and paths; the monument and cliff edges are not a playground for investigating holes.
Where it is
Trevelgue Head / Porth Island
50.4269, -5.0629 · Position source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trevelgue_Head
Trevelgue Head archaeological landscape — not a cave entrance
Visiting and access
A location reference, not confirmation of public access or a visitor entrance.
Sources
Connected subjects
Read on
- Porth Island Before Newquay: Furnaces, Roundhouses and a Chieftain’s Grave
Porth Island held a defended settlement and an ironworking industry long before Newquay grew around it. Later storytellers supplied a Danish chieftain.
- Watergate Bay: The Hotel Waiting for a Railway That Never Came
Watergate Bay’s hotel was built for an expected railway arrival. The railway failed to turn up; the building found several other futures.