Halangy Down

Halangy Down is a prehistoric settlement on the island of St Mary’s in the Isles of Scilly. It sits on the lower slope of a hill overlooking the coastal inlet between St Mary’s and Tresco. The site includes an Iron Age village, two entrance graves, prehistoric field systems and standing stones. A Victorian kelp pit and 17th-century fortifications also stand on the hill. Excavations show the village was occupied for 500 years, from the late Iron Age until the end of Roman rule. The remains reveal a complex of stone houses built and rebuilt over centuries. Archaeologists found Iron Age and Romano-British pottery, tools, brooches and even a slate spindle-whorl. One large house had multiple rooms arranged around a courtyard, surrounded by a high wall. A nearby midden contained heaps of limpet shells and animal bones. The standing stone at the foot of the slope measures nearly two metres tall and stands on granite. Visitors walk terraced slopes where stone walls mark the outlines of vanished homes. The Bronze Age entrance grave Bant’s Carn crowns the hilltop, offering wide views across the inlet. Lower down, the remains of field walls and a kelp pit show later uses of the land. The 17th-century fortifications run along the cliff edge, silent witnesses to Civil War defences. The whole site tells a story of continuous life from the Bronze Age to the 19th century.