The Entire History of The Isles Of Scilly // Documentary

[Music] okay it's early morning when we get to the silly isles [Music] crossing over the narrow sea on a tiny propeller plane [Music] a local school teacher on her morning commute goes to work and we head out on foot to explore one of the most historic landscapes in the british isles [Music] this small archipelago of islands strewn out in the waters past cornwall's most southerly point is a microcosm of the mainland pinpricked with the still visible remnants of so many eras of human history chamber tombs ancient villages iron age hill forts and napoleonic towers just like the rest of britain the silly isles land rife with arthurian legend once thought to have been a single island has seen invasion and conquest time after time throughout its long history [Music] from bronze age beaker people to vikings [Music] even much of the vegetation that currently thrives here was introduced from outside as were the food crops animals and many of the flowers the latter brought in by victorian whimsy my name's pete kelly back in the summer of 2019 i was fortunate enough to visit in just a morning and an afternoon we walked around the main island in its entirety seeing plenty of ancient monuments and stunning views along the way it was an amazing day and one that i look back on fondly [Music] it's now a year and a half later in deepest winter my trips to peru turkey and greece are all cancelled or postponed i can't go anywhere in fact due to the national lockdown so during this time of reflection i thought i'd share this journey with you let's go keep going south from the midlands past the welsh borders the craggy hills of somerset even further still down through devon bronze age remains of dartmoor and the ancient british lands of cornwall across the celtic sea you'll reach the farthest point on the british isles past these spits of land the wild atlantic churns endlessly all the way to the americas [Music] 28 miles southwest of cornwall over 140 islands stand remote yet close enough connected to britain by wind lashed seaways offshore roads their ancestors plied since at least the neolithic era some five or six thousand years before [Music] today the sillies are home to some 2000 people spread across five inhabited islands astonishingly evidence of ancient settlement has been found on many more [Music] uninhabited hills of rock that now stand eerily quiet empty this is a storied land one that's been luring in traders and pilgrims since at least roman times by the turn of the 20th century another traveler who came this way was of a different sort an archaeologist on the trail of the vast array of ancient monuments which pinpricked these islands his name george bonsa today as then there's only one place to go for those coming onto the island for the first time hue town the largest settlement and administrative hub it hasn't changed much in 120 years so in one of the few taxis on the island trees and hedgerows rush past as we head down country lanes from the airport little more than a single runway with a few buildings attached fishing boats crowd the bay as we get into town and we stop off for a quick bite to eat taking in the sights and sounds of island life [Music] but why was bonsa here well it's why we're here too overlooking hue town stands a small tomb you wouldn't notice it if you didn't know it was there this is buzzer hill site of a napoleonic era tower and below almost imperceptible in the undergrowth an ancient monument [Music] just one of more than 500 like it grouped unevenly on the landscape usually standing within short distance of each other [Music] once part of elaborate ritualistic [Music] complexes we only have time to briefly stop by but of course we're heading to another just outside of hue town this is band's can overgrown and filled in when bonsa arrived in 1900 it didn't look like much but over the ensuing weeks of careful archaeology some of the first carried out on silly he would arrive at fundamentally important conclusions bonsa uncovered four piles of cremated human remains here along with several shards of decorated pottery all dating to the bronze age over four thousand years before today known as a salonian entrance grave band's care is part of a tomb building tradition unique to the islands more than just a resting place for the dead it may have been used as a shrine and focal point of ceremonies for the local community not all of the ancient monuments on the sillies contained burials or if they had they seemed to have been removed at some point in the past [Music] often a curious mixture of soil ash and pottery are all that remain along with occasional smaller personal items perhaps evidence of refuse being deposited as part of elaborate soil fertility rituals though as with all neolithic and bronze age ruins we can't say much with certainty despite innumerable experts dedicating their entire lives to studying these ruins there is still so much to learn [Music] bance cairn doesn't stand alone today by the time the nearby iron age village of halangi down began to grow up here on the hillside though the entrance grave was already prehistoric here a stride the shoreline stand the remains of a dozen interconnected stone houses dating from somewhere around 800 bc until around the 1st century a.d these people didn't reuse the stones from the old ruin however suggesting a respect and reverence for the ancients today evidence still exists of a remarkably well-preserved platform surrounding the cairn far from being ignored it suggests a continuity of rituals long after the original meaning of the place was lost but of course much has changed since that time partly submerged field walls off the high tide line can be spotted off several of the islands not to mention evidence of ancient habitation on the tiny uninhabited island of teen and the remains of a prehistoric farm on norna today a tiny rocky scary unsuitable to agriculture just like on the scottish isles a curious example of a place having a higher population in the past indeed more people might have lived here back then though the evidence also suggests a time when bans cairne and halangi down stood much higher above the water in addition to folkloric mentions of sunken lands lying just off cornwall today science has filled in some of the gaps too [Music] a geological process known as post-glacial rebound having caused much of southern britain to gradually ever so imperceptibly sink under the waves [Music] drowning river valleys and gradually inundating low-lying areas over the long millennia since the last ice age [Music] some of the coastlines here are the same though the most naturally imposing hills and cliffs often bearing the mark of ancient habitation specifically having been shaped into massive strongholds to suit the needs of late bronze age and iron age cattle herders promontory cliff castles like shipment head down stand as a reminder of this time [Music] we see one called the giant's castle sometimes a name just reels me in the more unexplored and unresearchable the better giant's castle yep that one works no wikipedia page very very little information online or in books oh man unfortunately we just don't have the time to visit i make a promise to myself though that i will return one day interestingly these cliff castles examples of which i've seen all over britain might not have been used for defense much at all but for corralling livestock during raiding for example in the event of sea raiders being sighted offshore rather than squabbling amongst locals it may have been fear of unwelcome visitors that led to the construction of these temporary refuges and indeed invaders were on the way travellers from another world in the year 384 so says the roman writer sulpicius severus the forlorn sea vessel made its way out into the rough waves of the atlantic aboard facing a lifetime of hardship and toil sat two hunched over prisoners followers of the heretical church leader priscillian proponent of dualism and the idea that fate is not necessarily preordained by god defeated in debate by their fellow church leaders the two men bishops had been deposed of their titles and offices at an ecclesiastical council at bordeaux earlier in the year others of a lesser rank hadn't been so lucky though christian now the roman state still having a fixation for capital punishment shackled in deep contemplation and instantius weren't headed for the afterlife just yet though and after a few days at sea they might have spied land on the horizon in truth we don't know their destination for certain but many scholars have interpreted it as the silly isles their ultimate fate we don't know this being one tiny shred of evidence in a sea of uncertainty like most empires throughout history however it's often argued that the romans used their remote islands as ready-made places of banishment for political prisoners and petty criminals alike from the arabian gulf to the mediterranean perhaps even being forced to labor in tin mines in the case of the sillies though the island might have been part of the casa terridies or tin isles visited by the phoenicians since the bronze age and later described by the greeks unfortunately very little evidence remains and not much tin exists here today [Music] by the time of pythius of missilia in the 4th century bc the first known mediterranean seafarer to arrive in this part of the world writing a now lost book describing the journey archaeology suggests links to the celtic venetiae of what is now northern france as much as the cornish mainland in the first century bc julius caesar describes the venetiae as possessing a great fleet of ships and boats have been found in britain dating as far back as the early bronze age [Music] isolated yes but cut off the sillies have never been by the time the romans invaded britain in the 1st century a.d it wouldn't be long before the sillies submitted too it's tempting to think of a roman fleet turning up to force the hand of the locals but really we simply don't know what happened between 100 and 400 a.d pieces of roman-made pots occasional coins and a scatter of romano british objects in selonian settlements give hints at this world though little more on the neighbouring island of tresco one we didn't have the fortune to visit sheltered in the ruins of a benedictine abbey [Music] amidst beautiful tropical plants from brazil new zealand burma and south africa half a world away luxurious gardens sprawl over the landscape [Music] the work of a 19th century property owner and mp augustus smith an especially influential figure in the history of the islands [Music] underneath all the imperial splendor of the gardens to those who aren't looking a small granite pillar stands guard unlike the benedictine ruins this pillar is a thousand years older on two sides etched into the rock are representations of a sacrificial knife and axe this is an uninscribed roman altar uninscribed meaning we don't know who built it or what for what we do know however is that augustus smith moved a lot of things around on the islands particularly to set up his gardens and it's likely the altar originally stood on saint mary's [Music] who was the deity worshiped in the shrine well this is where speculation comes in [Music] wherever they went the romans syncretized their gods with local ones other words a celtic water spirit could become linked to poseidon a war guard to mars we see this from the scottish borders to the shores of the black sea [Music] an example in britain is the goddess sulis minerva seen in archaeology at the city of bath and described by the writer celinus in around 200 a.d the hot springs of bath had been important before the romans came and would continue to be so after they left being described by the 9th century writer nenius as one of the wonders of britain amazingly just maybe there could have been a link between the sillies and bath given the geography of the place it's very likely water deities were worshipped on the sillies [Music] and we have a shred of written evidence too in a text called the ravenna cosmography dating to around 700 a.d mentioning a place of britain known as minerva's isle [Music] so then perhaps this altar was a romano british shrine to a native sea god syncretized with the roman god minerva had happened with sulis at bath it's an interesting idea at least and one charles thomas an authority on the matter thinks at least possible and of course the islands were much larger back then coastlines have changed a lot [Music] some of the cornish language place names here also seem to reflect past shorelines and former land areas [Music] in his landmark work geography the roman writer ptolemy gives a list of capes and headlands which navigators could use on britain suggesting a navigational beacon fire or lighthouse on land's end just a few miles away he has little to say about silly unfortunately the place was simply too peripheral to feature in his grand tour [Music] by the second century a.d a roman naval force was stationed in britain by the third century such was its power its commander would rebel declaring himself emperor but did a fleet ever come here well there is a settlement at nornor bearing signs of roman seafaring activity and old town on saint mary's too might have once been home to a roman harbour when william balays one of the first archaeologists to work in britain visited nornor in 1752 he certainly thought it to be the remains of a fort but mostly it was the older remains that interested him going on to excavate several ancient tombs the sillies have long attracted antiquarians and archaeologists though it would be another 200 years before the secrets of the next stop on our tour were uncovered entrance graves are unique to the west of cornwall and the isles of scilly where there is a huge concentration why so many we simply don't know it's a mystery though we do know their construction may have continued for longer here than elsewhere these ones are some of the best examples inner sigdon lower and upper burial chambers [Music] as many as 80 prehistoric chambered tombs are known on the isles of scilly usually the focus of shrines and ceremonies and not just places of the dead the borders between deceased and living not being as permanent as they are today [Music] inicidion stood overgrown and filled with soil until 1950 by which time it had already been looted along with any finds that might have been preserved unfortunately the exact dates of entrance graves remain obscure very few remains have been found and none definitively dateable pottery must be relied upon in order to estimate their age though experts think they were built on the cusp of the late neolithic and early bronze age between around 3000 and 2000 bc [Music] a time of transition when the ancient oak woodland of the islands was partially cleared the sea levels were lower so many of the islands were linked up either all year round or at low tide at least [Music] the tomb here has a rectangular chamber parallel walls built with considerable care and skill unfortunately no items have been found however the walls revealed traces of rough clay mortar suggesting once upon a time it was plastered decorated even [Music] my mind wanders to the remarkably well preserved frescoes at chateau huyuk half a world away in modern day turkey many thousands of years older than this showing hunting scenes and ceremonies giant animals [Music] what did these walls look like once upon a time again all we can do is wander another period with very little concrete information to go on but much to talk about on the sillies just happens to be my area of expertise [Music] it's the post-roman era the early middle ages and one of the most evocative images of that time well of course it's king arthur [Music] by the 19th century when the victorians took an interest in the legend the tale of king arthur was already well established [Music] it had been told and retold for more than a thousand years in fact since nenius first mentioned the great hero king in the 9th century purporting his existence some 300 years before [Music] over those long eons much of the truth at the heart of the tale if there ever had been any had disappeared replaced by the present day concerns of its interpreters from victorian sensibilities to high medieval chivalry to hatred of the english by 9th century welsh writers yet deep within the tale as with all myths somewhere way down truth does exist for our story one of the more fascinating portions of the tale is one embedded in the law of brittany across the channel as much as britain populated in part by romano britain's fleeing turmoil and outside invasion following the roman withdrawal from britain it's the tale of a lost land said to have once existed somewhere in the celtic sea just off cornwall leoness legendary homeland of the gallant knight sir tristan one of arthur's round table like saint brendan heading out into the atlantic to find lost islands and battle sea monsters and other tales of lost lands such as east in brittany and entire lost cities in wales [Music] the tale of course was once thought to be a complete fabrication but today that's not so clear there is a place that fits many of the descriptions perhaps lioness is a folk memory of a time when silly sat higher in the water a description written during roman times just before the age of arthur designates silly as cylonia insula indicating either a single island or one of the islands being much larger than any of the others it's often suggested that by around 400 or 500 a.d rising sea levels flooded the central plain [Music] forming the 55 large islands and islets we see today that age was a crossroads in many ways with rome leaving britain and the empire collapsing soon afterwards silonians were free to dictate their own destinies once more though archaeology suggests they kept their links all the way across the mediterranean [Music] this had been a very remote place in roman times just as it would be in medieval like much of the west of britain it had been relatively little affected by rome its people still largely living in iron age roundhouses so naturally it was relatively little affected by the empire's collapse on the whole only sailors and merchants seem to have come here not your usual romano british person [Music] as we have seen a shrine to a native deity seems to have been visited by sailors [Music] though before long christianity took hold heavily defining the rest of the island's history [Music] by around 500 a.d memorial stones begin to appear suggesting a mixed community living on the island [Music] perhaps immigrants arriving from south wales themselves harassed by sea roving irishmen coming across the sea to the west before long during the 5th to 8th centuries a.d substantial amounts of sea trade took place voyagers passing between cornwall ireland wales brittany and beyond due to their location the sillies remained a well-suited stopping off point for those passing by [Music] some coming from lands far away carrying wheel-made pottery from north africa in the eastern mediterranean large handled jars for wine and oil and fine red dishes and bowls from gaul various well-produced and sturdy items and occasional vessels from the levant carthage and the other great ports of antiquity what the return for these journeys may have been is unclear although tin may have continued to pour out of the isles exactly when the place became christian we can't be sure though perhaps it became a pilgrimage site for the new faith as it may have been for the old by around 700 a.d stone churches begin to appear clearly showing the importance of the new faith the best known being on the island of saint helens though evidence of hermitages on samson and mean has also been suggested [Music] by this time though any sort of solid evidence of politicking had long since disappeared the sillies had probably become outposts of the brethonic kingdom of domnonia and its offshoot kerno within a few hundred years though by the 10th century for sure all these lands would be conquered by outsiders moving in from the east outsiders who would soon commandeer the king arthur legend the english our final stop on the journey was an unusually large chambered tomb part of a large cemetery [Music] when george bonsa first came here in 1900 he found the place coated in earth and filled in like many ancient sites across europe forgotten by most porthelic burial chamber is just the most well known of at least eight similar cairns standing nearby partially blocked at both ends by upright stones the unroofed passage of the entrance might have originally been placed to restrict access or views into the chamber [Music] perhaps at the final death of this living monument after use for a long time like at bandscan bonsa conducted meticulous work at porthelek finding some bronze age artifacts left behind when looters raided the place at some point in antiquity what it originally contained unfortunately we'll never know [Music] we head down to a beautiful beach crystal white sands running down to the sea as we gaze out at the neighbouring islands i think of all the ships that wrecked here over the years like sea-facing people all over the world the cargo seized by the mob crew helpless to act or worse in the 16th century during the spanish armada at least one ship suffered that fate if the icelandic saga traditions are to be believed much earlier invaders came here too norsemen in truth living on more in folklore than real history most notably viking marauder and future king of norway olaf trigvassen was said to have passed through the islands during the 980s making a deal with a hermit to become christian in return for a crown in written history much more of which exists by this time in charters and chronicles it was during the reign of king edgar the peacemaker that the silly isles began to emerge from the mists of time [Music] with the founding of tavistock abbey by around 981 the power of the english kings was finally beginning to reach here [Music] yet there was still a defiance against the english [Music] rather than celebrating the great english king athelstan who waged successful wars against the vikings on silly as on the cornish mainland the tale would be recast as arthur and the danes we tell the stories we want to tell and for the salonians they are still different to the rest of the country yearning for the lost lands of myth and legend [Music] maybe arthur will return one day as legend says to drive out the english and restore the glory of the past i'm sure the english would be very confused if this happened i leave the sillies filled with awe and i'm determined to return one day [Music] thanks for watching my name's pete kelly don't forget to subscribe if you enjoyed the video let me know what you think in the comments and i'll see you next time

Channel: Pete Kelly

Views: 281,284

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Id: v8rQFcSanOU

Length: 42min 56sec (2576 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 26 2021