The Old Man of Gugh
OS grid reference :-SV 8905 0849
The menhir known as the Old Man of Gugh is situated at the base of heather strewn Kittern Hill on the isolated and now uninhabited Island of Gugh
The standing stone measures 2.7 metres high and in common with many of the prehistoric sites on the Islands of Scilly, it dates back to the Bronze Age, around 3,500 years ago.
The Old Man of Gugh is the only menhir in the Scillies to have yet been excavated. George Bosnor carried out the archaeological exploration in 1900 but nothing was found.
The landscape around the monument is littered with entrance graves, cairns and hut circles dating from around the same era.
Kittern Hill has five entrance graves, one of these, known as Obadiah's BarrowObadiah's Barrow was excavated in 1901, by George Bonsor, and "disarticulate burnt bones" were unearthed. There is also a cluster of fourteen cairns which are linked by prehistoric field walls or banks but the relationship between the two has not been established.
There is also evidence of Bronze Age round houses on the northeast and northwest sides of the island of Gugh.The island is accessible from the nearby inhabited island of St Agnes at low tide across the sandbar which connects the two.