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chris s wrote:
In my defence, was always called Black Rock by my father and members of my family, who farmed the area most of the last century! Though happy to be corrected. Andy, do you know of Uncle Ned's Rock at Bolenowe?
Chris
Sorry if I was a bit keen there! The carn I've referred to is what is known as Black Rock now in Crowan village, where I live. Crowan Beacon is seen as being a quite different location as I've said. I don't know of any old references to Carnsew or Carndhu as a place name which might help settle this one and there are no useful clues on old maps. Other people I've spoken to are also quite sure that Black Rock is the same carn I think it is. However there could actually be another candidate. I was told yesterday that someone I was talking to - in a gale on Crowan beacon - was taken years ago to see another black rock and he says it was just that, a round black rock.

I don't know of Uncle Ned's Rock at Bolenowe. Whose uncle and where?

No worries there Andy...I'm with William Blake on this one, 'tis only through opposites that progression can be made...reckon that precision has slipped in colloquialism, and that perhaps Black Rock in some quarters applies to cover the whole area? I stand corrected happily!
As for Uncle Ned's Rock, it's one that just pokes its head up nomenclaturally out of obscurity...it's deep in family lore as a meeting / trysting place, apparently has good sightlines from the north, Troon, Four Lanes, Beacon and the like; enquiries reveal nothing as to its nomenclature or who Uncle Ned was - guessing some colloquialism akin to the wellspring Jimmy Vincent's Well in Bolenowe village ( marked on the 1:25 000 as Vincent's Well, in that 'antiquity' typeface).
I've also seen it referred to in a local poem - whether by the Bolenowe poet John Harris or not I shall have to investigate, been scouring for the reference, but I suspect the poet is later than 1900, even mid-century...which triggered my interest that it has some fading local acclaim and was at some point known outside family lore.
Never been myself, but again it seems an odd survivor in an area super-intensively mined; really close to Grenville and the Great Flat Lode, it's on the OS sheet at Bolenowe Carn Moor (SW671374) (interestingly locally known as Scare Moor?)and I think is the one just above the 'r' in 'Carn'. It isn't very big, but has survived plunder on the moor which does show evidence of several shallow quarries and delves. Again this evidence comes from my family who can trace their Bolenowe roots back well into the 1700's. Might be worthy of further investigation I was thinking, if not ina strictly megalithical sense then at least for it's whispered position in fading local cultural tradition?
Oh how did the dowsing expedition go?
Chris