Adventures In Cornwall & Devon — Part 3
Dec 2002
Friday the 27th was my last full day in Cornwall so I spent it in the Land’s End peninsula. First stop was the captivating Chysauster Settlement. Chysauster is excellent and thankfully not even the amazing ineptitude of English Heritage can ruin the spirit of this fascinating settlement. The fogou has been filled in with earth and has a nasty set of railings over its entrance, a garish wooden shed and picnic table dominate the South East edge of the site, and the info board totally denies its Pre-Roman reality.
I failed to reach Mulfra Quoit and afterwards I got hideously lost amongst the roads. I really felt like I was losing my mind, going up and down the same roads. Later on I found out that Chris Collyer had had a similar experience a few years before. Is someone trying to tell us something?
After some torrential rain over night this rest of the day really was a sodden trek for me. The track from the old Carn Galver Mine towards the Nine Stones of Boskednan had become a fast running stream. But it was worth it though. The Nine Stones / Maidens, and the surrounding antiquities, are lovely, but hiding in gorse and swamps. The views all around are pretty stunning. Despite it getting late I tackled the mud baths to see Men-an-tol. It’s just one of those ‘must see’ sites that you’ve seen a million times in books and on postcards. On my way back I visited the Men Scryfa, a curious inscribed stone.
Under a crimson setting sun Lanyon Quoit was my final destination. After Trethevy Quoit this looks positively tiny, like it’s from the model village at Polperro, or Legoland in Windsor. Strange.
On Saturday (28th) I made my way home, via Dartmoor. The Merrivale complex has a lot to explore. Plan to spend some serious time here. The stone rows, the stone circle, a standing stone, barrows, cairns, lots of rocks, and even a less old boundary stone designed to confuse a little. Apart from all the more well know stuff in most of the books I thought it was also of interest to wonder about the lesser known scatterings of ancient remnants like the barrow about half way along the South row, the barely perceivable stone row leading from the South row towards an outlier, and the stones around the standing stone to the South of the stone circle.
I then found it quite a challenge to find and map two stone rows that were on the map but of which I knew very little about. I don’t know if they have names (I don’t have Jeremy Butler’s monumental 5 volume ‘Dartmoor Atlas of Antiquities’) so I’ve temporarily named them Sharpitor Stone Rows and Horseyeatt Stone Row . The first is pretty easy to find, but difficult to ‘see’, whereas the latter is harder to find but easier to ‘see’. Sharpitor came with two arm waving enthusiasts and a nice cairn and cist .
Finally I did something different, visiting the White Lady waterfall at Lyford Gorge (where I passed an arm waving couple with almost the same battered old car as me – I felt really at home in Cornwall, where E-reg’s are all the rage), the nearby Lydford Castle and Saxon town, and the Winkleigh Cider Company(’Sam’s Dry’ from the barrel is amazing).
Chysauster – the narrow back entrance to house 6 with hearth in the backbround centre – 27.12.2002
Chysauster – entrance to house 6 – 27.12.2002
Chysauster Fogou – gold old English Heritage! – 27.12.2002
Men an Tol – against a suprisingly strong winter sun – 27.12.2002
Nine Maidens of Boskednan stone circle – 27.12.2002
Carn Galva – sorry, not a great pic, a bit of an after thought, with a great breaking sun that would look good in colour but hasn’t really shown up on black an white – 27.12.2002
the cairn at the north end of horseyeatt stone row – looking south west, down the row – 28.12.2002
From the largest stone at the presumed south end of horseyeatt stone row – looking north east, up the row, across the stream and through the bushes – 28.12.2002
some of the larger stones about half way along horseyeatt stone row – looking north east, up the row, which goes from foreground centre up towards the bush on the horizon (not easy to see) – 28.12.2002
sharpitor cist, with sharpitor in the background – 28.12.2002
sharpitor stone rows – possible east ‘end stone’ for the rows, with the row just visible behind – looking west – 28.12.2002
Lanyon Quoit – getting dark – there was a lovely red sunset going on (one time when I wish I didn’t use balck and white!) – 27.12.2002
Lanyon Quoit – getting dark – 27.12.2002
Merrivale stone circle – 28.12.2002 – Looking East
Merrivale standing stone – 28.12.2002 – With Ros Tor in background – Stone circle just visible towards horizon on the right
Merrivale stone rows – 28.12.2002 – Taken from the West end of the South row
Merrivale stone rows – 28.12.2002 – Looking South, across the South row, with King’s Tor in the background. The tallest stone (at the lefthand edge) is the Eastern end stone of the south row.
Merrivale stone rows – 28.12.2002 – Taken from the Eastern end of the South row, looking down the row.
Merrivale stone rows – 28.12.2002 – The Eastern end stone of the South row, with next stone behind
Merrivale stone rows – 28.12.2002 – Taken from the West end of the North row
Merrivale stone rows – 28.12.2002
Merrivale cist and barrow – 28.12.2002 – Round barrow, cist and surrounding stone circle, about half way along the South row.
Merrivale extra stone row – 28.12.2002 – The break off extra stone row, about half way along the South row, with outlier in distance and denuded barrow in foreground.