XII.—An Excavation by H.M. Office of Works at Chysauster, Cornwall, 1931

In 1930 Col. C. R. R. Malone, J.P., of Trevaylor, generously placed in the custody of H.M. Office of Works the remains of an extensive Celtic village of the Romano-British period and possibly earlier. The site, commonly called Chysauster, lies upon a gentle south-western slope between the farms of Chysauster and Carnaquidden in the parish of Gulval about three miles north of Penzance and ten and a half miles from Land's End. It is in the granite area that forms the greater part of the Hundred of Pen with. The site is not fortified, but on the summit of the hill above it about 1,400 yards away is a hill-top fort called Castle-an-Dinas. This consists of three stone ramparts, and resembles very closely the neighbouring Chun Castle recently excavated by Mr. E. T. Leeds, F.S.A. Below the site is the valley of the Rosemorran stream which once yielded alluvial tin ore. The name Chysauster, though Cornish, is unfortunately of little value from the archaeological point of view, for its earliest form, which appears in a document of 1313, is Chysalvestre , Sylvester's house.