Ancient village with round-houses, St Mary's, Isles of Scilly.

HALANGY DOWN

Late summer, and St. John’s Wort is ardent for the sun. Ferns and heathers crown the stones. The quern alone is free from lichen as if the last grinding happened yesterday, and husks were yet in the wind.

A grass-choked drain leads out from a roofless house, and ants still search the opened larder.

Here we sat together, that first day of this strange interlude, looking out where flatfish frill themselves with sand, the arable land all drowned.

Stonechats tap, like clocks ticking out these interminable hours.

I too am as chaff, lifted by a breeze.

Source material: Halangy Down is covered with the remains of an ancient village which was inhabited during the Bronze and Iron Ages, from around the fifteenth century B.C. to the first century A.D. The village consists of a number of round houses and a single larger courtyard house. Above the village, on the hillside, there is a chambered tomb, known as Bant’s Carn, dating from the late Stone Age or early Bronze Age.