Qualla: Porth Hellick Down

Porth Hellick Down: Introduction

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit David Lally, CC BY-SA 2.0. There is more Bronze Age burial architecture concentrated on Porth Hellick Down than anywhere else on Earth. Walk the heath south-east from Holy Vale, climb a low rise above the bay, and you find yourself among at least six entrance graves, scattered cairns, and the faint stone line of a 4,000-year-old field boundary. The largest of them is a structure that the Franco-British antiquarian George Bonsor excavated in 1899 and chose to name, with no apparent modesty, The Great Tomb. The Isles of Scilly hold dozens of these graves across their few square kilometres of land, but Porth Hellick Down is the densest collection anywhere in the world.

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Image: David Lally | CC BY-SA 2.0

Porth Hellick Down: What an Entrance Grave Is

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Daniel Bagshaw, CC BY-SA 2.5. An entrance grave is a Neolithic and Bronze Age burial monument built mainly along the Atlantic coast of Cornwall, the Isles of Scilly, and the south-west of Ireland. A low circular mound of stones is held in shape by a kerb of larger slabs. A short passage leads from the edge of...

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Image: Daniel Bagshaw | CC BY-SA 2.5

Porth Hellick Down: The Great Tomb

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Bob Embleton, CC BY-SA 2.0. The largest and best-preserved entrance grave on Porth Hellick Down stands on the north-western slope, near the line of the prehistoric field boundary. The mound is 12.25 metres across and rises to 1.6 metres high, retained by a kerb of large slabs. The chamber inside is D-shaped...

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Image: Bob Embleton | CC BY-SA 2.0

Porth Hellick Down: The Coffin Grave

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. The westernmost entrance grave at the site is known as the coffin grave, named for the shape of its chamber. The mound's kerb measures 8.3 by 8 metres. The chamber inside runs 7 metres long, narrowing at both ends and bulging out in the middle, like a coffin or a boat hull seen i...

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Image: Public domain

Porth Hellick Down: A Grave That Used the Earth

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Alan Simkins, CC BY-SA 2.0. One of the entrance graves on Porth Hellick Down is built directly into a massive granite rock outcrop. The natural rock is part of the burial chamber, integrated into the structure rather than removed or worked around. The grave consists of a 13-metre-wide mound of stacked rubbl...

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Image: Alan Simkins | CC BY-SA 2.0

Porth Hellick Down: Lines on the Land

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Bob Embleton, CC BY-SA 2.0. Across the eastern slope of Porth Hellick Down runs a prehistoric linear boundary, a nearly straight line of small upright stones, each up to half a metre high, spaced 1.5 to 6 metres apart. The boundary stretches south-east to north-west for 17 metres, then continues for another...

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Image: Bob Embleton | CC BY-SA 2.0