Country diary: There’s something shining in the dark of the fogou

Sara Hudston
·2 min read
<span>‘The fogou culminates in a round, corbelled chamber, dimly lit by a small opening in the turf above.’</span><span>Photograph: Sara Hudston</span>
‘The fogou culminates in a round, corbelled chamber, dimly lit by a small opening in the turf above.’Photograph: Sara Hudston

Away from the dazzling sea, inland West Penwith is a landscape of rocks, wind and flowers. In high summer, sheep’s-bit sizzles an intense, electric blue alongside tall bolts of foxglove.

In the ruins of the iron age village of Carn Euny, the ground seethes with granite boulders. Some are built into hut walls; others erupt through the soil, part of a continual, slow movement. Every generation of farmers had to clear their fields of risen stone, occasionally digging out pieces the size of coffins.

The largest single rock here is a trapezoid hunk, almost as big as a first world war tank, that squats over a shallow well. In place of a gun turret, a hawthorn tree grows from the apex, lashed in place by long roots covered in pennywort, a succulent with round, fleshy, slightly frilled leaves, dimpled in the centre like belly buttons.

Carn Euny has a fogou – a mysterious underground passage of a type found only in the far west of Cornwall. Nearly 2 metres high and 20 metres long, it snakes into the earth. Today, it’s open at both ends and you can stroll in, but originally it was only accessible by crawling.

The fogou culminates in a round, corbelled chamber, dimly lit by a small opening in the turf above. The sides are slightly damp and covered with peculiar moss. Seen from certain angles, it shines a luminous lime, running like phosphorescent fire along the crevices between the stones. Gaze for a while and the wall seems to dissolve into a pit of green lava.

This is goblin’s gold (Schistostega pennata). Its fronds have refractive, lens-like cells that scavenge for light, focusing it on the chloroplasts deep within and bouncing green rays back, rather like cats’ eyes. Found in crumbling soil, typically the entrances to rabbit burrows and badger dens, it survives in stygian conditions too dark for other plants.

If taken outside in the sunlight, the moss dies, its brilliance extinguished. Its ungraspable allure inspired a genre of folktales about fools stealing fairy gold from beneath the ground and waking up the next morning to find that their treasure was nothing more than a handful of dirt.

• Country diary is on Twitter at @gdncountrydiary

• Under the Changing Skies: The Best of the Guardian’s Country Diary, 2018-2024 (Guardian Faber, £16.99) is published on 26 September; pre-order now at the guardianbookshop.com and get a 20% discount

  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next

Latest Stories

  • Beware! These dangerous plants are found in Canada

    Here are four plants you need to avoid coming into contact with this season

  • Crooked catch is a ‘shocking’ discovery by biologists in Florida

    Florida wildlife biologists conducting an electrofishing survey of Silver Glen Springs made an odd catch that resembled one from a few weeks ago.

  • Watch: Large, Argentina-native rodent on the loose in Colorado park

    Wildlife officials in Colorado are attempting to track down a long-legged South American rodent seen wandering loose in Lakewood's Bear Creek Lake Park.

  • Pongamia trees grow where citrus once flourished, offering renewable energy and plant-based protein

    An ancient tree from India is now thriving in groves where citrus trees once flourished in Florida, and could help provide the nation with renewable energy.

  • Fusion power could transform how we get our energy — and worsen problems it’s intended to solve

    Some processes that support fusion energy fuel climate change and may harm the environment.

  • N.B. invasive species council raises alarm over harmful rose

    The New Brunswick Invasive Species Council is raising awareness about a rose species that's harming native trees and plants in the province.Kristin Elton, executive director of the council, told CBC Radio's Shift that multiflora rose bushes will grow onto other species and nearby vegetation, suffocating them and competing with them for resources."That's where we see the issues," she said. "It has these really tall canning structures that kind of come up and fountain out and over. When there is s

  • Possible shark sighting at Nova Scotia beach prompts lifeguard to alert swimmers

    HALIFAX — A possible shark sighting near a popular Nova Scotia beach prompted a lifeguard to clear the supervised swimming area on Thursday, but the head of the Nova Scotia Lifeguard Service says there's no cause for alarm.

  • Single shark injures 4 different people on the same day

    South Padre Island, Texas was the scene of four shark-related injuries on July 4. Officials think the same shark caused all the injuries.

  • Powerful Florida family sold DeSantis administration toxic land, lawsuit alleges

    The lawsuit “centers on a businesswoman and matriarch of a powerful Florida family,” and on 11,000 acres sold to the South Florida Water Management District.

  • Ontario rules out charging deposit on non-alcoholic cans, bottles

    The Ford government will not bring in a deposit and return system on non-alcoholic drink containers such as pop cans and bottled water, CBC News has learned.Ontario was considering such a system – similar to what the province has in place for beer cans and wine and liquor bottles – to try to boost the recycling rates of drink containers.The system would have seen customers receive a refund for returning used beverage containers to promote recycling and reduce litter. But a senior government offi

  • ‘Beloved and iconic’: Skye the giraffe dies at the age of 26, Sacramento Zoo announces

    The female giraffe had spent a quarter-century at the Land Park zoo and had “given so many people a greater appreciation for her species.”

  • ‘There’s magic, there’s mythology, there’s power to these rivers’: Inside the expeditions documenting the Congo Basin

    Conservationist Steve Boyes is gathering scientific information across the length of the Congo River, which could help preserve its ecosystems and build resilience against climate change.

  • Herring quota in southwestern Nova Scotia, Bay of Fundy reduced again

    The Department of Fisheries and Oceans has again lowered the Atlantic herring quota in southwestern Nova Scotia and the Bay of Fundy, this time for 2024 to 2027.DFO has announced the total allowable catch for the fishery will be 16,000 tonnes per season over those four seasons. The 2023 allocation was 21,000 tonnes. "Atlantic herring, like many fisheries, faces challenges as a result of climate change, which has led to herring that are smaller in size and that have more difficulty surviving and

  • Metro Vancouver population set to surpass 4 million before 2050

    The population in Metro Vancouver is set to surpass four million sometime in the mid 2040s, according to projections released Friday in a regional planning document.By 2050, the number of people living in the region will reach 4,210,400, it says, based on a scenario of medium growth.That represents an increase of about 50 per cent or 1.4 million people over the 2021 population of 2,784,300.Simon Fraser University urban studies associate professor Meg Holden says that pace of growth will bring ch

  • Warm water again forces closure of Miramichi River salmon pools to fishing

    Salmon pools on the Miramichi River system are closed to anglers for the second time this summer.The closure, announced by Fisheries and Oceans Canada, covers 32 salmon pools and went into effect Thursday. The restrictions will remain in effect until conditions approve, the DFO release said.Under the agency's warm water temperature protocol, pool fishing is closed when temperatures reach a certain threshold. Salmon pools are deep parts of the river where salmon take refuge in colder water during

  • State of local emergency lifted for Calgary's water supply, but city cautions situation not yet normal

    In the city's final daily update on its water supply crisis, officials said the state of local emergency that was enacted on June 15 expired on Thursday and will not be renewed. However, Stage 4 outdoor water restrictions and a citywide fire ban remain in place as crews determine how the system will respond to the easing of indoor conservation measures."I want to stress that the lifting of the state of local emergency does not mean things have gone back to normal," said Sue Henry, chief of the C

  • The AI boom will push America's shaky power grid to its limit

    "The cost of that Gen AI architecture is freaking out of control," Baird strategist Ted Mortonson told Business Insider.

  • Another Wind Energy Project Announced

    The Seven Stars Energy Project is a collaborative effort between Enbridge and Six Nations Energy Development Limited Partnership. Centred in southern Saskatchewan, southeast of Weyburn, the wind energy project will be designed to produce 200 megawatts of power. Enbridge will develop, build and operate the project with support from a consortium of Indigenous partners including Cowessess First Nation, George Gordon First Nation, Kahkewistahaw First Nation, Métis Nation-Saskatchewan, Pasqua First N

  • UK’s Election Is a Rare Win Against Anti-Climate Campaigns

    (Bloomberg) -- As Britain’s center-left Labour party sweeps into power this morning, winning 411 of the 650 seats at the last count, it’s worth remembering what is happening among its allies.Most Read from BloombergBiden Narrows Gap With Trump in Swing States Despite Debate LossIran Elects President Who Wants to Revive Nuclear Talks With WestBiden’s Defiant Interview Unlikely to Calm Democratic NervesA $14 Billion Walmart Heir Joins Novogratz Urging Biden ExitTrump Distances Bid From Second-Term

  • Analysis-China, struggling to make use of a boom in energy storage, calls for even more

    BEIJING (Reuters) -Rows of what look like thin, white shipping containers are lined up on a barren dirt field in China's Shandong province. Filled with batteries, they form a 795 megawatt (MW) plant that can hold up to 1 million kilowatt-hours of electricity - enough to power 150,000 households for a day, making it China's largest such storage facility when it was connected to the grid last Saturday. Built by Lijin County Jinhui New Energy Co, the project is part of an explosion in development of energy storage in China, which has called for even more investment in the sector to boost renewable electricity and ease grid bottlenecks.