I was walking up Stannon Moor towards Roughtor on a cool, misty summer evening, dressed a bit like it was November. I hadn’t been up for a while and it’s one of my favourite spots. Stannon Stone Circle isn’t Stonehenge but at about 40m in diameter, it’s one of the larger ones in Cornwall.

It’s thought to be up to 4,000 years old but stone artefacts are hard to date accurately, because dating rocks simply tells us when they formed, so we are reliant on artefacts related to its construction or use. Anyway, it was built a long time ago and as I plodded up the valley, I sat on the rocks on the edge of one of the huts dotted on the hill above the circle, and marvelled at how many people had done the same thing. It’s thought about 100 people lived up here in about 25 huts. Each was about 8m in diameter with a stone base to the walls and wooden poles to hold up the roof. Other sites suggest stone would’ve been used for beds and seats, maybe softened by heather and bracken.

This period, the late Neolithic (New Stone Age) saw farming being developed with a sedentary lifestyle, and there are evidence of field structures on Stannon. It must have been a tough old life, the climate was varying around warmer and cooler periods compared to now and you can imagine how wet and muddy it must have been. Luckily, the valleys were well wooded so there was probably plenty of fuel for the central fire, with the warmth it brought.

As I sat there, with the dogs snuffling around, I wondered what people did when not working, how they communicated (probably a Breton-Celtic language is the best guess) and if they had fun. I wondered if they were house proud, or was it a very functional existence.

I suspect they weren’t that much different to us, although they didn’t have a pub!

• Fred Knobbit is a nature blogger. He grew up in the Pennines in Lancashire on the edge of an industrial town but is now safely in Cornwall. You can read his archive at www.bodminblogger.com