By Peter Dudley, Historic Environment Service (Projects), Cornwall County Council
For many people the bleak looking downs and moors of the Lizard are iconic parts of its landscape. While they are known internationally for their biodiversity and as the home of the unique Cornish heath or Erica vagans, they are also important for archaeologists and landscape historians because of the wealth of archaeological remains they contain, and as they form part of Cornwall’s unique historic landscape character. Due to their wild appearance it is easy to imagine the downs and moors simply as natural landscapes, but their character has in part been formed, and maintained, by thousands of years of human activity, principally through the grazing of livestock.
Sometimes the term ‘rough ground’ is used to describe the moors and downs as they contain a mix of rough vegetation – coarse grassland, heather, heath species, furze (gorse), bracken and willow. Until the l9th century, upland, valley and coastal rough ground were important areas of west Cornwall’s farming landscape and used as part of the rural economy. Today, it is likely that few people are aware of the history of farmers taking sheep, cattle, ponies and goats on to the rough grazing, or of householders cutting furze (gorse), turf (peat), and ferns (bracken). Such sights were once commonplace on the Lizard.
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A Bronze Age barrow on Goonhilly. In the foreground is the rough vegetation of heath and coarse grassland, the barrow covered by a mix of heath and heather species (Photo © Cornwall County Council). |