Pendeen Vau Fogou is one of the best preserved and most impressive of all of Cornwall’s fogous. These unusual Cornish monuments were constructed in the Iron Age, some 2000 years ago, for a purpose that no one has entirely unravelled yet. What is clear, beyond the debates about their usage, is that these subterranean tunnels have a magical quality that, it has to be said, seems to encourage superstitions and flights of the imagination!

I have written extensively about other fogous, what they might be for and how they were constructed and when, in other articles (see links below) but this study of Pendeen’s fogou is going to be a little different, this is less about archaeology and more about legend, story and folklore. How the people who came after the original builders of the monument viewed their work, what the fogou came to mean to more modern minds . . .

Inside Pendeen Vau

Pendeen in Cornish translates as pen – headland and din – fort, referring to an Iron Age cliff castle in the vicinity, probably at Pendeen Watch, that was sadly destroyed by later mining activity. It is possible that the builders of the lost fort were also the people who built the fogou. The Vau element of this fogou’s name comes from the Cornish word for cave – fow/vow. Today Pendeen Vau can be found about half a mile from the coast, tucked in amongst farm buildings but, besides the cliff castle, there are other hints of its origins nearby including a possible Iron Age Round nearby and the remains of an ancient storage pit.

When the writer John Murray visited in the 1860s, while writing his ‘Handbook for Devon and Cornwall‘, he was told that Pendeen Vau was where “the ancient Britons concealed themselves in times of danger”. However, Murray was less than impressed with the “excavation” as he called it, as at the time of his visit the fogou was being used to house the farm’s pigs.

Several other authors, including Craig Weatherhill, discuss in their writing the oft-repeated story that local people believed that this fogou was once the entrance to a much longer tunnel. In fact, it was said that at one time the passageway went either, all the way to the Isles of Scilly or, more commonly, that it reached as far as the sea about half a mile below where it stands. There were those who seemed to believe the ‘tunnel’ might have some smuggling connections, but amongst some early writers there seems to have been the general belief that the fogou could just be the part of some old, forgotten mine workings, perhaps because of its proximity to the more modern house and farm buildings.

Writing in the 1890s John Lloyd Warden Page concluded:

“Close to the house is a cave called Pendeen Vau. Who excavated it – for it is not a natural opening – and why, no one knows. It is simply a vault or a passage in the ground at the back of the house . . . Altogether the Vau is not at all exciting and why the natives think so much of it is puzzling to say. The tradition is that it passes beneath the cliff to the sea. If it ever did the passage has long been choked. As likely as not Pendeen Vau is nothing but an old mine adit.”

Warden Page was much more complimentary about Pendeen House, also known as Pendeen Manor, the historic home of the Borlase family.

The house came into the possession of the Borlases in 1663 but according to the writings of William Borlase the family rebuilt their home in 1670. Having said that, it appears that they may just have extending the earlier house as architectural experts, V.M and F.J Chester, writing in their book, The Cornishman’s House, believe that the current structure still contains many of the original mid-seventeenth century features.

Warden Page stayed in Pendeen Manor in around 1897 and “had the honour of sleeping in the room in which the great antiquary [William Borlase] first saw the light, a large room with a coved ceiling, ornamented with plaster pendant in the middle and the plaster frieze upon the walls”.

Pendeen Manor Farm, the ancestral home of the Borlase family, is within the farmyard containing the fogou of this name, one of the most noteworthy in Cornwall, as well as, perhaps, the best preserved and in several aspects unique, its site being partly in a great wall. No other fogou, to my knowledge, is similarly placed. The main entrance opens into the farmyard . . .” – Evelyn Clark, Cornish Fogous, 1961

Having been born in a house with a fogou in his garden it is perhaps hardly surprising that William Borlase went on to dedicate his life to studying the antiquities of Cornwall. He was the first to take an interest in and to excavate Pendeen Vau in the 1760s, publishing his findings in 1769. He wrote:

“Of all the artificial caves I have seen in Cornwall, that called Pendeen Vau is the most entire and curious.”

Borlase details the dimensions of the monument, its three tunnels or galleries as he called them, the pits he found beneath its floor and he wrote that Norden in his ‘Survey of Cornwall’ had claimed that “the tide flows into this Cave at high water”. But Borlase dismissed this idea as an “idle story” of the “common people” and makes no further mention of any other superstitions connected to the fogou.

But there were plenty of superstitions it seems, other stories to tell . . .

The Haunted Cave

Writing in the 1860s Joseph Polsue suggested that local people had many “superstitious notions” about the “cave” called Pendeen Vau. According to him they believed it was the home of “some dreadful hobgoblin”.

John Thomas Blight must have visited the site around the same time and he wrote:

“[Pendeen Vau] was for a long time regarded superstitiously by the people of the neighbourhood, and was supposed by them to communicate with the sea, half a mile distant, and to be the haunt of some terrible spirit.” – J. T. Blight, A Week at the Land’s End, 1861.

Bligh also describes a conversation that he had with a miner about the fogou while he was there.

Apparently the miner had a friend, also a miner, who had entered the ‘cave’ years before and had told him that it went out underneath the sea, that it went so far that “he had burnt a pound of candles” following it and that “he had no doubt that if his friend had continued his journey he would have arrived dryshod at the Scilly Islands, about twenty six miles distant.” Bligh makes no comment on whether he believes this tale or not, and does not elaborate further on who or what the “terrible spirit” that was said to haunt the fogou was.

It is likely however that Bligh is referring to a recurring local legend that on Christmas morning the figure of a woman (his ‘terrible spirit’) dressed in white appears at the entrance to the fogou. She is described as carrying a single red rose and anyone who is unfortunate enough to see her will “die within the year”.

So who is this woman and why is she so cursed?

Bringing Folktales Together

“At dawn on Christmas-day the spirit of the ‘Vow’ has frequently been seen just within the entrance near the cove, in the form of a beautiful lady dressed in white, with a red rose in her mouth. There were persons living a few years since who had seen the fair but not less fearful vision ; for disaster was sure to visit those who intruded on the spirit’s morning airing.” – William Bottrell, Traditions and Hearthside Stories of West Cornwall’, 1870

Over the rest of this article I will be combining a number of different sources, teasing together this story and trying to pin down where the legend might have come from.

It appears that William Bottrell may have been the first to record the story of the ghost at Pendeen Vau in writing, first mentioning it in his columns for The Cornish Telegraph in November 1868, then in his book ‘Traditions and Hearthside Stories of West Cornwall’ in 1870 and then repeating it in another volume in 1880. (Although, of course, it seems that Polsue and Bligh must have been told something similar around ten years earlier they did not give any details.)

“Few were so curious as to venture near the Vow [Vau] by night, scarcely by day, as all said the place was haunted by the spirit of a lady which had often been seen coming out of the cavern in the depth of Winter, dressed all in white, with a red rose in her mouth; and woe betide the person who had the bad luck to see the ghost — misfortune was sure to follow.” – William Bottrell, Stories and Folklore of West Cornwall, 1880

So, what other sources do we have?

In 1892 W. Herbert Thomas published a book called ‘Poems of Cornwall’ bringing together the work of thirty Cornish authors in what he hoped was “a representative volume of Cornish Poetry”. One of the poets who contributed a piece to the volume was Margaret Ann Courtney. Born in Penzance in 1834 Courtney was passionate about collecting and preserving Cornish folktales, songs, games, dialect and superstitions and the poem she provided for the book was entitled ‘The White Ladie’. The poem was based on a story she had been told in her childhood.

The other detailed account of the ghostly woman at Pendeen Vau was published in a book by Beryl James, ‘Tales from the Tinner’s Way’ in 1988, but it would appear that James used Courtney’s poem as the inspiration for her version of the tale. What follows here then is summarised from ‘The White Ladie’ poem, which means we have to be mindful and consider whether Courtney remained faithful to the folklore she had been told as a child or whether she embellished the story for artistic, poetic effect.

The White Ladie

Writing in 1892 Courtney suggests that she had first been told the story some fifty years earlier (1840?) but that it was a tale that was by then already very old, having taken place in the early 17th century during the reign of King James (1601 – 1625). The thirty-three verses lay out in detail a tragic story of love and betrayal that was said to have taken place at Pendeen Manor when a family called Penkivell were living there. The owner of the house had one child, a daughter, called Avis, who was “proud and haughty” but extremely beautiful with deep hyacinth blue eyes, red wavy hair and a creamy rose complexion. Despite her beauty Avis’ heart was cold; she had no end of suiters but none of them were ever good enough for her. One of her potential matches was her cousin, John Lenine, who adored her and tried to please her in any way he could.

For her he'd often crossed the sea
In search of laces rare,
Brocades and silks, that she might be
Decked out in all her bravery,
The fairest of the fair.

For Cornishmen, in days of yore,
Thought smuggling was no crime;
And John Lenine, who knew the shore,
Had brought from France, like many more,
Rich ventures in his time.

It was said that John used the tunnel from the shore, that emerged at Pendeen Vau, to visit Avis and bring home his contraband.

She would take his gifts but did not return his affection and was cruel and ungrateful towards him. On one occasion she told him that she would only marry him when there was frost and snow in summer or when roses bloomed in mid-winter. In fact, Avis told John that she would accept his ring if he brought her a red rose on Christmas Day.

John was so smitten he took this rebuttal as a challenge and set off in his boat in search of the illusive flower.

While he was away at sea a ship arrived on the coast of Penwith, it was a naval vessel sent to muster troops for King James. It is possible that this was in 1608 when there was a plan to send men to fight in Ireland, but whatever the case, apparently local people were fearful because their husbands, fathers and sons had been ‘pressed’ into service before and never seen again. Avis was not afraid, however, she was delighted because she rather had her eye on the captain of the ship. A man she saw as having the rank and money she desired. And while she flirted with the captain she let slip about her promise to John and his illegal activities.

The traitress told him all - The vow
She'd pledged herself to keep;
Said John at home would soon be now;
Wished he would "press him", cared not how,
If killed she should not weep.

Meanwhile John had sailed to Nice in France and managed to find his love that precious red rose he thought she desired and was joyfully making his way home so that he would be there in time to present it to her on Christmas Day morning. But as he came to Pendeen Manor via “the hidden path” to the fogou he was confronted by ten men of the Press Gang who were waiting on the captain’s instructions to take him away. John fought for his life with the rose in his hand and managed to fight them all off, except the captain. Sadly the two ended up fatally wounding each other. In his last moments the captain told John of Avis’ betrayal and with his dying breath –

The Captain cursed her; bade a lad
The rose to Avis bear,
Wet with his blood; "Tell her she had
Her wicked wish, might now be glad,
And it in triumph wear".

Avis lived to an old age but she never found love or happiness. She was cold even on the sunniest of days and her body cast no shadow. She lived alone until the day she died. But even in death, there was no peace for her.

Each Christmas morn she doth appear,
At the entrance o' the cave,
Holding her rose. She striketh fear;
Who sees her knows the coming year
Will find him in his grave.

Avis Penkivell & John Lenine

Records from the early 1600s are scare and patchy at best but I did see if I could trace any of the names in the poem. There is no way of knowing if these names were made up by Courtney (Bottrell doesn’t mention them) or whether these really were the individuals associated with the folktale, but they do seem rather unusual and specific to be plucked from her imagination.

Avis (or Avice) comes from the Latin meaning ‘bird’ and although it is pretty much unheard of now it was once used in Cornwall as a first name, if fairly infrequently. There are records of an Avis Penbirthee, Avis Penprase, Avis Penaluna, Avice Penlurick and Avice Penrose but no Avis Penkivell, and none of those names are from the right area of Cornwall or the right time period. Just twenty-five girls were baptised either Avis or Avice in the whole of Cornwall between 1550 and 1600 and none of them in Pendeen per se because that parish was not created until the mid-19th century – it would have been St Just in Penwith. The closest I can get, geographically, is the burial of an Avis Lanyon in Morvah in 1634 . . .

As for John Lenine, that name was a little more common but not in the Pendeen/St Just area. There were Lenines in the Zennor and Ludgvan parishes (too late) but the closest record I found was the burial of John Lenine in Paul in 1602.

As for the owners of Pendeen House or Manor, in the early medieval period the lands in that area were owned by the Trenouth family and then in 1475 the estate passed to Richard Pendyne and his wife Agnes. However a few years later Richard’s son and heir (sometimes called Richard, sometimes John) had all his lands confiscated in around 1499 after he took part in the Cornish Rebellion of 1497 and fought at the Battle of Blackheath.

“At Pendeen lived, in the time of Henry VII, one Richard Pendyne, ‘one of the rebels who, under Lord Audley, Flammock, and Joseph,’ dismantled Tehidy, the residence of John Basset, then Sheriff of the County, and did much other mischief in the West—an offence which he expiated by losing his estates.” – CORNISH   WORTHIES: Sketches of some eminent Cornish Men and Families, Walter H. Tregellas, 1884.

A history of the Borlase family, written by William Copeland Borlase, suggests that Pendyne’s wife, Anne and his daughter, Jane, were forced to give the estate to the man who had captured him after the battle, John Thomas. By the 1550s however the lands had passed to the Eva family and then in 1663 John Borlase (or Burlace) purchased it. No sign of any Penkivells there then.

In fact, lots of dead ends all round really. Sometimes the records just aren’t there.

So the mystery of who the ‘Lady in White’ might be will remain just that, a mystery . . .

Another Curse

And what of the story of a curse, the idea that anyone who sees the ghost of the ‘Lady in White’ at Pendeen Vau won’t live to see another year?

Interestingly Pendeen Vau is not the only fogou to have a curse. Jo May, who bought ‘Rosemerryn’, the house that has Boleigh Fogou in its garden, devoted a chapter of his book about the monument to “the curse” of that site. Soon after he moved there in the 1970s he was told by local people that all the male owners of his house died of unnatural causes and that there was “a ghost that would float down the stream by the house which usually foretold an untimely death”.

Another spectral warning of impending doom associated with a fogou. Bottrell touches on this too:

“A short time ago an old inhabitant of Boleigh informed us that many persons in that neighbourhood are afraid to enter the Fuggo, even by day, as they believe that bad spirits still frequent this place. Women of villages near often threaten their crying babies that they will carry them down to the Fuggo, and leave them there for the Bucca-boo if they don’t stop their squalling. There are traditions that almost all these caves were haunted by beings of a fearful nature, whose path it was dangerous to cross”. – William Bottrell, Traditions and Hearthside Stories of West Cornwall,1873.

I was able to establish that part of this story about Boleigh was actually true, though probably coincidental rather than sinister. ‘Rosemerryn’ was built in 1912 by Benjamin (Bengy) Eastlake Leader, an artist, would lived there with his wife, Belle. He died in France in 1916, during the First World War, aged 39 years. The next owner was Crosbie Garstin, a poet and novelist and son of the Newlyn painter, Norman Garstin. Crosbie and his wife bought the house from Belle in the 1920s. Crosbie drowned in 1930 aged 42 in “mysterious circumstances” when his boat capsized and his body was never found. And then finally, Jo May bought the house from another widow (her name alludes me sadly) and she told him that her husband, a botanist, had been killed while searching for plants in Norway when his car was struck by a train. Strangely the widow also told May that she had had a premonition about the trip and tried to persuade her husband not to go.

So all three previous male owners had died prematurely.

Jo May survived the curse, however, he sold ‘Rosemerryn’ to the present owners in 2003.

And any ‘real’ evidence of the curse at Pendeen Vau has not come to light during my research, whatever circumstances led to the rumour has been lost in the mists of time.

Final Thoughts

“Ancient power spots, and sacred sites like fogous, are gateways. The real openings lie in our own hearts, minds and lives.” – Jo May, Fogou – A journey into the Underworld, 1996

This ghost story may very well just be a morality or cautionary tale, a story told to illustrate the pitfalls and dangers of sinful, prideful behaviour, rather than anything based on actual real events. Though of course, it is always possible that there are nuggets of truth in there too, perhaps there once really was a beautiful but vain young woman living in Pendeen Manor who met with a sad end . . .

However, Bottrell wrote that he believed that the story of the ‘Lady in White’ had been invented to keep “the over curious” away from the fogou. He suggested that this could be because in the past it had been used to store valuables, possibly smuggled goods, which would link nicely with our John Lenine character.

Many of Cornwall’s fogous were thought to have been the haunt of piskies, evil spirits and fairies, so Pendeen Vau’s ghost is perhaps just a (very detailed) variation on the theme of those dark inhabitants. It would seem that, like all ancient sites, especially the ones that remain somewhat mysterious and unexplained, fogous play on people’s fear of the unknown and they spark the imagination.

Perhaps their eerie, dark atmosphere creates the perfect conditions for the troublesome seed of a story to grow . . .

Visiting Pendeen Vau Fogou

The fogou is on private land, in the farmyard, permission should be sort to visit but I have always found the owners to be friendly and open to visitors. Remember to leave gates as you find them and be mindful of any livestock in the area, this is a working farm, so dogs should be kept on leads.

Further Reading

Boleigh Fogou – Rosemerryn, Lamorna

Trewardreva Fogou – the Piskey Hall, Constantine.

Halliggye Fogou – One of Cornwall’s mysterious subterranean tunnels

Walking Opportunities at Pendeen

Circular walk from Pendeen to Portheras Cove

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