vallierojas: Staying in a replica Iron Age roundhouse

What better way to get close to Cornwall's ancient history than enjoying the life of a Celtic chief?

Cornwall is well known for its rich cache of historic sites; from the popular ruins of Tintagel Castle to the many far more ancient sites scattered in fields and along overgrown footpaths. But they're not generally the kind of places I'd want to spend the night ? the lack of standing walls and the resident wildlife being just two obvious drawbacks.

So I was very curious to visit one of Cornwall's most unusual new places to stay. Bodrifty Farm's reconstructed Celtic Chief's Roundhouse is smack bang on the doorstep of the remnants of an Iron Age settlement, one of the most important of its kind in western Europe. In many other countries, I imagine, a site of such significance would be fanfared with a gift shop, tea house, or at the very least some prominent signage, but I get lost on the short drive along ever-decreasing lanes from Penzance. When I finally pull into the drive at Bodrifty the sound of my car brings owners Penny and Fred Mustill, with their daughter Emma, out of the farmhouse to greet me. It was their fascination with the history on their doorstep that inspired this most unusual holiday let.

The Roundhouse is tucked discreetly behind the farmhouse in its own sheltered meadow, behind a copse of trees. The impressive Tolkeinesque reed roof sweeps almost to the grass. We duck beneath its generous canopy through willow doors (woven, I'm told, by one of Mousehole's last traditional lobster pot makers).

I fancy that this is what you might get if BBC's Changing Rooms paid a visit to the set of Time Team. The centrepiece is a large canopied four-poster bed. It's handmade from local oak but piled Princess-and-the-Pea-high with plump duvets in white Egyptian cotton. Painted wall motifs have been copied from pots excavated from the village; the beaten earth floor is overlaid with rugs; and local artists have contributed sympathetic pieces, such as Iron Age-style ceramics by local potter Essex Tyler.

"Well, we had to make some concessions to modernity," Emma explains. And while the city girl in me is thankful for that, it's the structure of the Roundhouse that impresses me most. It began as a labour of love back in 1999. Inspired by the ancient site on his farm, Fred decided to build an authentic full-scale replica roundhouse. The timbers are cut from Cornish oak, and lashed together with twine ? no nails are used.

For cooking and heating there is a large central fire pit. Fred's insistence on authenticity is what makes the stay so memorable; the first thing that hits you as you enter is the sweet scent of wood smoke from previous fires.

But while this is billed as "luxury" camping, there is enough of a gap under the door for the sounds of the countryside at night (and no doubt a few creepy-crawlies) to drift inside ? soft rain, wind and, in the morning, a racket of bird chorus. A torchlit walk to the toilet in a converted stable block certainly brings back the elemental feel of a night under canvas.

Of course, I can't leave without visiting the Iron Age village, and the next morning Fred offers to take me on a tour of the eight roundhouses that made up the longest continually inhabited Iron Age settlement in Europe. He's great company and a knowledgable guide, bringing the village to life with descriptions of their farming life ? back then, the countryside would have been buzzing with villages, he explains. In fact, the first residents were early "eco thugs" who farmed the land barren and deforested it, shaping the almost treeless landscape that characterises this area of Cornwall today.

A walk to Carn Galver ? the highest point on the peninsula ? rewards with stunning views across rough fields of granite moorland, punctuated with signs of history and prehistory on their brief descent to the Atlantic: from ancient quoits and mysterious cairns to the defiant chimneys of ruined engine houses from the 19th-century tin industry.

Navigable in places is the Tinners' Way ? an ancient trade route along the ridgeway used to transport tin from the mines to ports at St Just and Land's End. Only cows and sheep keep parts of it open now, but along its route lie many neolithic treasures: beehive stone huts from medieval times, the famous M�n-an-Tol fertility stone, and Caer Bran, a hill fort.

Fred originally intended the Roundhouse to show local school children and families what the nearby site would have looked like. In its glamped-up guise it still gives an insight into Cornwall's ancient past and, history aside, it is certainly one of the most fascinating buildings I have ever slept in.

? The Roundhouse sleeps two and costs from �150 a night. It is available March to October. Book through Canopy and Stars (canopyandstars.co.uk/find-a-place/bodrifty/the-roundhouse)

Georgia Brown

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