I totally agree with you that Ian McNeil Cooke’s books and re-prints are excellent, and very useful additions to the other material on Cornwall. The link to his website has been posted in the ‘Links’ section, and on the Boleigh Fogou page.
Boleigh is a bit of a strange situation. The info on this site is now pretty clear that you need to call in advance; which I guess is the owner’s prerogative. People who have called in advance seem to have had a pretty warm welcome. I’m not sure what the situation was when ‘The Modern Antiquarian’ was researched / printed, but it doesn’t mention pre-booking, so maybe they are getting more unexpected visitors that they would like. I did feel a bit uncomfortable about going and decided in the end to not go - I just want to visit the site as an ancient site, not as some re-birthing site. I also feel a bit uncomfortable when people sell land that includes an ancient site at a premium, as if they are some sort of ‘unique selling point’ or a good investment. I’m not saying this is Jo’s situation because the centre and the grounds are large, but it is a shame that two ancient sites in Penwith have recently come ‘up for sale’ with huge price tags attached. This follows the recent stories on this site about a barrow being sold by a London based ex-member of Van der Graaf Generator - http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/browse.php?site_id=419
(see the news section). I note that one of the stories says that “Nic bought the land from his father, Norman Potter, in the mid-1980s for a few thousand pounds” and now he’s trying to sell 4 acres of land (that you can’t farm or build on) for £150,000? Uh, when did land prices go through the roof like that?
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