Medieval Cornwall 

Industrial Cornwall 

Modern Cornwall

Stone circles and ancient sites

While the history of mankind on the European peninsula has lasted for some seven or eight hundred thousand years, resettlement of the British isles resumed during the height of the Ice Age, c. 10,000 BC.

Because it has been sparsely populated in modern times, Cornwall retains a huge amount of traces of early prehistoric sites, such as the famous Lanyon Quoit, built following the so-called 'Neolithic Revolution' that began in 8000 BC and resulted most notably in sites such as Stonehenge and Avebury from 3000 to 2000 BC.

The antiquities of Cornwall were first recorded in detail by William Borlase, in his Observations on the Antiquities Historical and Monumental of the County of Cornwall (1754)

Cornwall: Land of the Celts

As with most of the British Isles, Cornwall was populated by the ethnic group(s) which have since become known as the Celts.

Although populated during Roman times, Roman influence in the peninsula was not as extensive west of Exeter (Isca) as through the rest of the south coast. The difficulties of reaching Cornwall, other than by sea, was also important to the survival of Celtic culture following the spread of the Angles and Saxons.

The kingdom of Dumnonia (and its sub-canton, Cornubia) was eventually overrun by the Saxons of Wessex but, as in Wales, the slow procession westward meant that Cornwall long remained distinct from the rest of England.