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Tolborough Tor Cairn

Cairn(s)

Folklore

The cairn is mentioned by the erudite Sabine Baring-Gould in his 1905 novel 'Mrs Curgenven of Curvengen' - but I'm sure it'd be based on his knowledge of local folklore. Well ok, he could have made it up.
[Esther] kept to the heights, now traversing whole villages of ancient circular huts, some within pounds and fortifications, some outside, at what date tenanted none knew. Now and then she startled a couched moor colt or a heifer, or a frightened curlew with a whirr and scream rose from under her feet. Then she made Tolborough, with its cairn crowning the summit, a chambered cairn with a passage leading into its depths, where dwelt the pixies. She passed without fear, the Good People had never hurt her. She belonged to them; they would protect her when taking refuge in their domain, their last refuge from the encroaching plough and the sound of church bells.
p298 in the edition digitised at the Internet Archive.
http://www.archive.org/details/mrscurgenvenofcu00bariuoft
Rhiannon Posted by Rhiannon
12th October 2007ce
Edited 12th October 2007ce

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