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Visited 07/11/01CE.
We could see this in the distance as we walked from St Buryan to Tregiffian, and it looked serene and beautiful. Approaching it from the foot of the hill reminded me of TV's Stig Of The Dump (the last episode where the kiddies follow Stig out onto the land at night and find him and all the other Stigs erecting a stone circle!). Anyway, the Merry Maidens were kind to us, playing host to a few rays of sunshine on an otherwise grim day. We walked around the circle a couple of times, and observed the suggestion that the distant hills of Bartinne and Chapel Carn Brea have been likened to the breasts of an Earth Goddess ... not really sure about that, they're only A-Cup hills from here. But the circle does have an atmosphere of purity and innocence, so maybe there's a pre-pubescent proto-goddess in them there hills?
A very romantic site.This post appears as part of the blog post " Visit to Land's End, 03-08/11/01ce" |
Visited 07/11/01CE.
This barrow is in surprisingly good order, considering its unfortunate roadside position. It's almost ON the road itself, and that makes me wonder about the motives of the road - it's totally insensitive and something you'd expect the Romans to have done. Maybe there's just a general lack of interest in ancient sites down here, it seems that way. Having said that, there's the remains of an information board here, with the information ripped off (there seems to be some kind of Pro-Kernow group going round removing all references to English Heritage and blacking out English Roses on all signs, quite sinister but I don't know enough about it to understand where they're coming from).
But, despite its road-side position, this little barrow is a treat. Definitely not suitable for meditational use in the day time (unless you can trip out under traffic) it might be quiet enough at night to be of some use. Whatever, it's beautiful and we're lucky it hasn't been completely trashed by a vehicle or removed because of the danger it presents to drivers.This post appears as part of the blog post " Visit to Land's End, 03-08/11/01ce" |
Visited 07/11/01CE.
Setting off from St. Buryan and following the footpaths on the OS map we got horrendously lost and disorientated. The weather was damp & fierce but we persisted and eventually located the circle, having to cross a 4-6 inch deep stream in trainers along the way.
Entering from the north, I at first thought the famous leaning stone at the centre had been set upright, but this was just an illusion and the steep angle at which it leans became apparent as we walked around it. This circle is crazy - it's in the absolute middle of nowhere and isn't even marked by name on the OS map. We sheltered by the stone to the left of the quartz stone, which in today's dull weather unfortunately wasn't gleaming and sparkling at all. After we'd chilled out and warmed up, the circle seemed to make a lot more sense, and we tripped out for a bit, wondering about all the activities this circle must have seen in its time.
In comparison to photos I'd seen, the circle is now heavily overgrown with gorse, restricting the views of the circle and preventing us from seeing it as a 'whole'. But, I managed to get a decent shot and constructed a 360 degree panorama which can be viewed here: http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/holy_mcgrail/boskawen_un.movThis post appears as part of the blog post " Visit to Land's End, 03-08/11/01ce" |
Visited 06/11/01CE.
After about 4 hours of walking we began to tire - it was almost too much to walk to Lanyon Quoit, and the tarmac was actually a welcome chance after twisting my ankle a few times on the muddy, rock-strewn paths. We spotted Lanyon Quoit halfway down the hill from Bosiliack Barrow, but the paths sent us on quite a few diversions before we got there.
The site was definitely one of the most physically impressive of the trip, even though it is apparently more Victorian reconstruction than anything else. It's a striking image in a striking landscape, with views back towards the omnipresent Ding Dong mine and Carn Glazer, and one of the few sites we encountered that was actually signposted.
We didn't hang long as it was chucking it down and this Megalithic Gazebo offered very little shelter, the ground beneath the capstone being very muddy and full of cowpats. Looks like the cows love this one.This post appears as part of the blog post " Visit to Land's End, 03-08/11/01ce" |
Visited 06/11/01CE.
We nearly walked straight past this one, but the write-up in Journey To The Stones contained just enough cosmic-ness for us to warrant checking it out. Hidden away to the side of an already overgrown path, Bosiliack is a pretty little thing marked on the OS map only as "Tumulus". The Barrow has been robbed of its capstones and cowers exposed in fear of the elements, but is especially interesting because of an experiment undertaken by Cooke in 1986. He sat against the backstone in the chamber to see if there was any link with the mid-winter sunrise, and guess what? The first rays struck the backstone, with the sun in a direct alignment with the axis of the passage. Just like Maes Howe and Newgrange, this little barrow likes to show off once in a while, but because of it's location and limited reputation, it doesn't have much of an audience.This post appears as part of the blog post " Visit to Land's End, 03-08/11/01ce" |
Visited 06/11/01CE.
Embarrassingly, we at first wrongly identified the barrow to the north as being the circle! Unimpressed after reading promising things of this site, and already deciding not to hang around (the weather conditions were getting increasingly poor) we walked south and were pleased to find Boskednan for real!
But this place was so overgrown with gorse that it was hard to get any real perspective on it. We huddled on a knoll in the middle and ate our lunch. The views were reducing, but I managed to get a picture from the centre of the 'entrance stones' framing Carn Galver, looming to the NE. A deliberate alignment or co-incidental? From up here you really can't help but stare at it.
It was too extreme to really explore the circle, with many deceptively deep puddles and the wind blasting us back every time we tried to stand up. So, we finished our lunch and headed down towards Ding Dong Mine and beyond.This post appears as part of the blog post " Visit to Land's End, 03-08/11/01ce" |
Visited 06/11/01CE.
After hearing about the damage that this site endured last year, I was pleasantly surprised to find it in pretty good condition, though as I haven't been here before I've got nothing to compare it to.
Completely unsheltered, we huddled up against one of the outlying stones and read a little in Cooke's "Journey To The Stones" book. After hearing of its' supposed healing properties, Abbie stuck her foot in the holed stone to see if the pain in her toe would go away (she claimed it actually did, though admitted later it was only very temporary, and probably more due to taking the weight off it than anything else!).
The ground around the stones was waterlogged so I decided not to try crawling around it and through the hole nine times on this visit, maybe next time.This post appears as part of the blog post " Visit to Land's End, 03-08/11/01ce" |
Visited 06/11/01CE.
Chun Quoit is a real treat, straight out of some vaguely-magical Childrens' Sunday Afternoon TV special. We wandered around in the bleakness wondering if we were heading in the right direction, speculating about how to read maps properly. But finally we saw it and hobbled (our legs still aching from the 10 miles of walking 2 days before) our way up to it.
It's in such an amazing location - unrestricted views all around, and the vibe of this place is intact. We took turns to crawl inside, and I once more experimented with music, picking 'Hill of Odin' from Julian's 'Rite 2'. In retrospect, it was a bit of a bad choice. That track is amazing at giving the listener a sense of infinite space when heard in a confined place, but at somewhere like this it just sounded so miniscule. After watching 'Soundtracks Of The Stone Age' on Channel 4 a week later, I wish I'd gone for something more vocal - or indeed screamed my own lungs out - because according to Paul Devereux, Chun Quoit is reckoned to have rather special acoustic properties. Nevertheless, I spent a good 20 minutes inside the Quoit, writing dodgy notes and wondering about the reports of radiation inside the Quoit being 123% above the outside environment. Then I noticed a small wet patch on the roof, inside, where you wouldn't expect the water to end up (it was drizzling outside, but inside the Quoit was completely dry). I couldn't resist having a little dab and a taste of this water, while my mind buzzed with the possible consequences .......... nah, just a little gritty water - nothing mind-altering, but Chun Quoit is a place of extreme possibilities where you get the feeling just about anything could happen.
Leaving the Quoit, we headed over to Chun Castle, an Iron Age hillfort just in view to the SE and well worth a little visit if you're up at the Quoit.This post appears as part of the blog post " Visit to Land's End, 03-08/11/01ce" |
Visited 04/11/01CE.
We visited Zennor a little unprepared, not having re-read the info in TMA or any other publication. So, I was completely in awe of the semi-constructed cow shed (In 1861, a farmer started pulling Zennor apart to build a cow shed, the 3 posts in front of Zennor being as far as he got before Rev.W.Borlase bribed him out of it for 5 shillings) and unaware that Zennor had been tampered with at all, it could have meant to look like that for all I knew. We crawled inside and I put the 'Odin' CD on the crap little speakers I'd been carrying around. 45 minutes later, we were leaning against the South side, huddled up watching the sun fall, with 'Odin' still undulating quietly from inside. After our first day's walking it was a real treat to hang up there, completely undisturbed except for the rumblings of the Oldfather and the odd snatch of speech from people over at the Logan Stone. The view from Zennor towards the sunset had all the promise of a great cosmic event, but we were nervous about getting back to the hotel safely so we set off before the sun met the horizon. With 'Odin' continuing to ommm-out from my bag, we began the walk back down to Wicca.This post appears as part of the blog post " Visit to Land's End, 03-08/11/01ce" |
Visit to Land's End, 03-08/11/01ce.
See individual sites for more detailed notes.
Determined to combine a much-needed break with a trip to some stones, Abbie and I booked a few nights at Channings Hotel[*1] in St. Ives. We bought Landranger map 203 and hurriedly poured over it on the train on the way down as we didn't have much time to plan before we set off, just time to print off a list of sites within 50km of the hotel's postcode. There was so much to check out and we were without a car so we had to plan quite carefully.
The first whole day down there (04/11/01CE), we took in the Coastal Path walk west of St. Ives, with the intention of heading off to Zennor Quoit when we got round far enough. This plan went a bit awry when we got lost on the Coastal Path(!) so we just headed to the right of Rosewall Hill. We ended up clocking in around 10 miles that day, taking in Zennor Quoit but unable to locate Sperris Quoit.
Day 2 (05/11/01CE), and we hobbled around St. Ives. My legs ached too much from trekking about. I picked up Journey To The Stones by Ian McNeil Cooke (he was briefly featured in the Modern Antiquarian film, with Julian at Boleigh Fogou) and Myths and Legends of Cornwall by Craig Weatherhill and Paul Devereux (after reading his Places of Power I thought I'd be in safe hands). Journey To The Stones proved absolutely indispensible - it focuses on 9 different walks across the Land's End, taking in everything you'd expect and more, and backing it up brilliantly with loads of information on the fall of the Motherculture, the influence of the sun and moon, christianised sites, ancient trackways, stone crosses etc. etc. etc. Wonderful.
Day 3 (06/11/01CE), and we get a mini-cab[*2] to Keigwin near Morvah (about £15 from St. Ives) to start an abridged version of Cooke's Walks 4 & 2, taking in Chun Quoit, Chun Castle, Men-an-Tol, Men Scryfa (didn't get near it - the cows fancied us), Nine Stones of Boskednan, Bosiliack Barrow and Lanyon Quoit. All in all, we walked for around 5 hours, getting picked up by a cab at Morvah at sundown.
Day 4 (07/11/01CE). We took the bus from St. Ives to Penzance and changed there to take the Land's End bus, getting off at St. Buryan. On the way we spotted the Drift Stones from the road, and a couple of other stones marked on the OS map simply as 'Standing Stone'. From St Buryan we did a circular walk to take in Boskawen-Un, having to negotiate a stream and an electric fence whilst still (as far as we could tell) following the footpaths marked on the OS map. Returning to St Buryan's, we recharged and for our final stretch we took what looked like an achievable section of Cooke's Walk 8 ... Tregiffian, The Merry Maidens and The Pipers. By the time we'd done those, it was already getting dark and our London legs couldn't hack the walk down to Boleigh Fogou. We cabbed back to Penzance (about £8) and got the bus back to St. Ives.
Even though we cheated in places, I was still amazed by the proximity of these sites and consequently how much we managed to see. If we'd have had a few more days (and didn't need any R'n'R) we could have taken in almost every site in the Land's End and done it mostly on foot. It was the first 'field trip' we'd taken, and it took us a while to get used to basic things like the scale of a map - ie what was achievable and what wasn't - but it was inspiring and we'll definitely be doing similar trips in the future.
Notes:
[1] I would have added our hotel as a facility to this site but there are so many places to stay down there that you're better off just checking out Cornwall Online (http://www.cornwall-online.co.uk) and finding somewhere suitable for where you want to base yourself.
[2] Whilst I'm a bit of a cab-addict in London, out-of-season St. Ives is only served by a bus to Penzance, so for car-less people wanting to go elsewhere we had no choice.
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At the foot of the incredible Mam Tor is Odin Mine, marked by a NT sign but off limits on my last visit due to F&M (April 2001).
It struck me as quite significant at the time because my visit was just after finding out that Odin was unique amongst norse gods because he got his power from the Mother Earth. Mam Tor, and at her foot, Odin Mine. Hmmm.
And after reading up on the Odin Stone on Orkney (and indeed Yggdrasilbury), it now makes even more sense; Mam Tor and Odin Mine couldn't have been named such by the (later) invading Vikings, for the Vikings had abandoned the 'Mother Earth' completely. There's a good chance, therefore, that their relationship could be based in antiquity.
Could this be another example of the 'norse' myths being eternally played out in the British Landscape?
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Information on Ian McNeil Cooke's essential guidebook for those attempting to "do" Land's End on foot: 8 practical walks and loads of in-depth but easily accessible information on stone crosses, the fall of Motherculture, the influence of the sun and the moon, and so on.
This page is located on Cooke's Men-an-Tol Studio website, which has information and ordering details for the above and his other publications, and there's lots more obscure and compelling information hidden away in them there pages...
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Loads of info on places to stay in Cornwall.
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According to "Myths & Legends of Cornwall" (C.Weatherhill & P.Devereux), the mines on Rosewall Hill were haunted by Knockers (weird sprite-like things). A miner called Trenwith formed a partnership with the Knockers, and benefitted from their expertise at mining ore. Trenwith would leave 1/10th of properly dressed ore as payment to the Knockers. This relationship continued after Trenwith's death via his son, who one day sought to cheat the Knockers. The lode then failed, he became a drunk who lost all his father's money and ended up a beggar.
Sounds like a lovely metaphor for earth-lights, respect for the land and other weirdness to me.
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Approaching Zennor Quoit on foot from the St Ives coastal path, this figure appeared - Rosewall Hill. It struck me immediately as being a Sleeping Beauty type-presence, but I haven't been able to find any information relating to it as that.
One thing that did shock me later, as we walked back along the road from Wicca to St Ives, was that the road goes straight across "her" neck. Which is a bit grim if you think about it, and I remember experiencing the same thing going along a road south of Dublin - a road straight over the neck of a recumbent hill figure. As far as I know, Cornwall was never really invaded or anything, but it seems like the sort of thing the Romans (or later invaders) might have done to upset the locals! Symbolically slitting the throat of the female hill figure. Hmm.
Just conjecture really, can't find any information to suggest that Rosewall Hill was ever known as a lady of the land, but from both sides "she" definitely gives that impression.This post appears as part of the blog post " Visit to Land's End, 03-08/11/01ce" |
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