Images

Image of Showery Tor (Ring Cairn) by GLADMAN

Brown Willy rises in the distance...

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Image of Showery Tor (Ring Cairn) by GLADMAN

Retrospective upon (finally) moving on to Rough Tor. Note the substantial nature of the ring cairn...

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Image of Showery Tor (Ring Cairn) by GLADMAN

For me, this is THE most special tor in the West Country.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Image of Showery Tor (Ring Cairn) by GLADMAN

20 years since I was last here... a long time for us, but a blink of an eye for Showery Tor.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Image of Showery Tor (Ring Cairn) by GLADMAN

Looking across to neighbouring Rough Tor... it would take the greater part of the day before I could move on, however.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Image of Showery Tor (Ring Cairn) by GLADMAN

Wow. Brown Willy rises beyond, itself well, well worth a visit

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Image of Showery Tor (Ring Cairn) by GLADMAN

The great ring cairn surrounding its enigmatic charge... the latter like a mustang petrified to stone within its corral... as in one of those tales of yore.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Image of Showery Tor (Ring Cairn) by postman

Spring equinox sun rise 2016, it was a secret sunrise, hidden from the searchers and thinkers.

Image credit: Chris Bickerton
Image of Showery Tor (Ring Cairn) by postman

47
My next birthday?
Roswell?
Charlton Athletic fan?
the meaning of life, plus five?
I dont know.

Image credit: Chris Bickerton
Image of Showery Tor (Ring Cairn) by postman

looking back along the rocky ridge from just below Rough Tor.

Image credit: Chris Bickerton
Image of Showery Tor (Ring Cairn) by postman

This was as close as the sun got to Showery Tor, with a name like that I should consider myself lucky.

Image credit: Chris Bickerton
Image of Showery Tor (Ring Cairn) by postman

The view from the car park, Showery Tor on the left, Roughtor on the right, the long silly cairn curves below Showery Tor, and more round houses than I could count.

Image credit: Chris Bickerton
Image of Showery Tor (Ring Cairn) by GLADMAN

Perhaps the finest natural sculpture I’ve yet seen... September 2004.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Image of Showery Tor (Ring Cairn) by thesweetcheat

The bank of the ring cairn can be seen on the left.

Image credit: A. Brookes (19.6.2015)
Image of Showery Tor (Ring Cairn) by thesweetcheat

The ring cairn framed between Brown Willy and Little Roughtor.

Image credit: A. Brookes (19.6.2015)
Image of Showery Tor (Ring Cairn) by thesweetcheat

A superb ring cairn built around wonderful natural sculpture, with jagged Roughtor beyond.

Image credit: A. Brookes (19.6.2015)
Image of Showery Tor (Ring Cairn) by GLADMAN

I know it’s had an awful lot of practice.... but sometimes Nature just does it better, you
know? September 2004

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Image of Showery Tor (Ring Cairn) by pure joy

In a stroke of genius I booked another week in Cornwall for the week the clocks change, and a week of stunning weather! It is early April and Bodmin Moor is tinder dry. Just before I arrived there had been several small fires in North Cornwall nd the day I left there was a large gorse fire at the other end of Cornwall (on the Lizard peninsula).

I stopped off in Dartmoor on the way, the sun was blazing and Fernworthy forest was so peaceful. Although it’s usually only the circle that is talked about Fernworthy is one of these ‘complexs’ with a stone circle , two cairns and cairn circles, two stone rows, and possible others. I was so taken in that I began to think I was an archaeologist for a day and soon I will have to unleash diagrams onto this fantastic TMA site! The south side of the forest also has a stone row. And a brisk walk onto the moor brings you to the Greywethers, a restored and stunning double circle. I also tried to find the Heath Stone on the way out. Does visiting ancient sites get much better than today?

On Sunday I went to the St Breock Downs area, checking out the St Breock Wind Farm Barrow, the colossal Men Gurta Menhir, and peering at the St. Breock Downs Menhir. I then moved south to the China Clay country (sounds like a theme park) to find the moved Menevagar / Roche Longstone and the huge Hensbarrow – this is the highest natural point in the area and the views back across the valley are stunning, with the St Breock Downs wind farm clearly visible. However, if you ignore the nice bit of the view you could just as easily think you are sitting on the moon as the clay works surround you. To round off a pretty lazy day I visited the two sites closest to where I was staying – Headon Barrow and Warbstow Bury, the later being quite stunning and the best-preserved hill slope fort in Cornwall.

On Monday I pleasured myself (steady on!) with a trip to the St.Austell Brewery – staustellbrewery.co.uk – and onto Mevagissey for sarnies on the harbour. I had forgotten my maps so instead of heading off for some yomping on Bodmin Moor I had to pull Plan B out, which was a visit to The County Museum in Truro – royalcornwallmuseum.org.uk – I knew that the famed cup marked stone from the Tregiffian Burial Chamber was there, as was a copy of the Rillaton Cup, and other things. There is a huge amount to see and as they are a registered charity it is £4 well spent (and please fill out a Gift Aid form, so they can reclaim your tax!)

Tuesday led me on a huge barrow hunt, including the massive Tich Barrow, one of the Starapark Barrows, the Advent Triple Barrow (a rarity), and the Crowdy Reservoir Barrow and then several wind swept hours in the Roughtor area, including the Showery Tor ring cairn and cheesewring, and the Showery Tor Embanked Avenue, the Showery Tor Downs Cairn, Roughtor Slopes Cairn and three possible standing stones in the area. In an action packed day I also went to the fascinating King Arthur’s Hall, , the nearby King Arthur’s Downs Stone Circles, the Casehill Cairn, and explored around the area; expect a diagram soon! On the way home I had a quick stop at Helsbury Castle.

Like it or loathe it I thought The Museum of Witchcraft – museumofwitchcraft.com – was worth a visit so the next day I went to see it in Boscastle’s picturesque harbour. I was glad to see the Museum asking people not to have fires, leave rubbish or ‘inappropriate offerings’ at ancient sites. Later I visited three great cliff castle’s close by – Willabury Cliff Castle (Boscastle) plus the fascinating ‘stitch’ system of agriculture on Forrabury Common, Willabury Cliff Castle (Tintagel), and Tintagel itself. I also saw the curious Rocky Valley Rock Carvings but I’m even less convinced now. I had a quick search for Ugworthy Barrows (actually over the border in Devon) and the rare Woolley Long Barrow.

I really don’t seem to have got the hang of these ‘holidays’ have I? Not much resting going on, so I only went out on the moors late on Thursday, and spent some of Friday re-reading one of favourite books on the beach at Crackington Haven (‘Life and Times of Michael K’ by J.M.Coetzee if anyone is interested).

So several hours on Thursday were spent on Fox Tor & East Moor and in the Leskernick area of Bodmin Moor. Two totally different environments in one way (the former gorsey and brown, the later green but scarred and pitted like the moon) separated by the A30 but both full of ancient sites, and continued finds. East Moor includes the Fox Tor Stone Row (apparently), the East Moor Stone Row, and possible Menhir / Stone setting, and the Nine Stones of Altarnun. The Leskernick area is still being explored and new things still being found. My few hours included Leskernick Stone Row, a cairn near the stone row, Leskernick Stone Circel (Northern), Leskernick Stone Circle (South), the Leskernick ‘Quoit’, the Cairns on the summit of The Beacon, and a possible Kerbed Cairn and Barrow Cemetery on The Beacon

Image credit: Martin Bull
Image of Showery Tor (Ring Cairn) by phil

Rock formation at the top of Showery. The small rocks around it are said to be a ring cairn

Articles

Showery Tor and the Bank Cairn

An extended sojourn upon Showery Tor, via the Rough Tor Bank Cairn

Showery Tor

I tried to come here one evening last summer whilst we were down in Cornwall, tried and failed, no map, no idea, no clue, failed.
I tucked it away into a mental back pocket, not always a good thing, it’s taken a decade to get back to some places, but I really wanted to get up Showery Tor, I really really wanted to see what I have dubbed the king of ring cairns, It would be on the front cover of a book that would be called something like Ring cairns of Britain, Ireland and Brittany, probably written by a man with a beard, anyway he would choose this ring cairn to adorn his cherished accumulation of years of travelling, above all others, it is the king of ring cairns.
Waffle
From the car park the way is clear and obvious, you might want to follow the long silly cairn up the hill, try to pick out the spot where Phil Harding and Francis Prior stood excavating, selfie opportunity. (Shoot me)
I should probably mention that today is the spring equinox and that after a five hour drive under grey skies it was clear that the sun would not be recognising my dedication to duties, but would instead be ignoring my efforts utterly. As expected really.
Anyway, I am on site at the appointed hour, but I have to look at my compass to see which way the sun is coming from, I reckon a sunset would be better, the best vantage viewing points are on the east side.
So, there’s no sun, but everything else is just superb, the ring cairn is massive, more like a henge in size, the rock stack in the middle works on me in more ways than one, on it’s own it’s an impressive little rock stack, made of pretty stones, the broken rock second from bottom....... was it broken when the ring cairn went up?
Why was it chosen for a cairn to go round it, is it just a cool place or did it have some deep meaning for them, bah, pesky mysteries.
Three ponies are sharing the hill top with me, but unlike most that ive come across they are totally unafraid of me, even pausing and posing for photos.
I’ve been here for a while now and it seems that nothing more can be gained from sitting in the wind, of which there is plenty, so after returning to the car for my lighter, I re climb the hill and sit out of the wind on little Rough Tor, a perfect point from which to zoom in a good picture of the south half of the ring cairn, until some dick on a motorbike screams round the hill top, there’s no justice, if there were he would have exploded.
Climbing higher up the side of Rough Tor itself the ring cairn is perhaps now too far away to be seen, but Showery Tor is a Minninglow of Cornwall, an unmistakable shape on the horizon, not as unmistakable as Rough Tor or Brown Willy, but you hopefully get my drift.
But now I must get off for the long legs of my walk, three stone stone circles, a dozen cairns and a hundred round houses beckon me on.

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Showery Tor

This rocky outcrop has to be the most moving, aesthetically pleasing piece of sculpture I’ve ever seen – naturally occurring or otherwise.

Shaped by millennia of the viciously inclemental Bodmin Moor weather – and let’s face it, it can be pretty bad – the graceful, flowing curves and contours exhibited here make it seem ludicrous to think that this just sort of, er, ‘happened’. But then, Mother always has known best, hasn’t she?

I can’t help thinking the upper most segment looks remarkably like an archetypal dolmen capstone. Seeing as this was obviously an prehistoric ‘special place’ maybe the connection isn’t as far fetched as I first thought. An intriguing thought......

Showery Tor

I didn’t read the notes for here beforehand so I was only expecting the “cheesewring”. Missed the embanked avenue on the way up. Could have had something to do with the local hunt and the supporters riding past on bikes and quads.
Somewhat spoilt things.

Showery Tor

In a stroke of genius I booked another week in Cornwall for the week the clocks change, and a week of stunning weather! It is early April and Bodmin Moor is tinder dry. Just before I arrived there had been several small fires in North Cornwall nd the day I left there was a large gorse fire at the other end of Cornwall (on the Lizard peninsula).

I stopped off in Dartmoor on the way, the sun was blazing and Fernworthy forest was so peaceful. Although it’s usually only the circle that is talked about Fernworthy is one of these ‘complexs’ with a stone circle , two cairns and cairn circles, two stone rows, and possible others. I was so taken in that I began to think I was an archaeologist for a day and soon I will have to unleash diagrams onto this fantastic TMA site! The south side of the forest also has a stone row. And a brisk walk onto the moor brings you to the Greywethers, a restored and stunning double circle. I also tried to find the Heath Stone on the way out. Does visiting ancient sites get much better than today?

On Sunday I went to the St Breock Downs area, checking out the St Breock Wind Farm Barrow, the colossal Men Gurta Menhir, and peering at the St. Breock Downs Menhir. I then moved south to the China Clay country (sounds like a theme park) to find the moved Menevagar / Roche Longstone and the huge Hensbarrow – this is the highest natural point in the area and the views back across the valley are stunning, with the St Breock Downs wind farm clearly visible. However, if you ignore the nice bit of the view you could just as easily think you are sitting on the moon as the clay works surround you. To round off a pretty lazy day I visited the two sites closest to where I was staying – Headon Barrow and Warbstow Bury, the later being quite stunning and the best-preserved hill slope fort in Cornwall.

On Monday I pleasured myself (steady on!) with a trip to the St.Austell Brewery – staustellbrewery.co.uk – and onto Mevagissey for sarnies on the harbour. I had forgotten my maps so instead of heading off for some yomping on Bodmin Moor I had to pull Plan B out, which was a visit to The County Museum in Truro – royalcornwallmuseum.org.uk – I knew that the famed cup marked stone from the Tregiffian Burial Chamber was there, as was a copy of the Rillaton Cup, and other things. There is a huge amount to see and as they are a registered charity it is £4 well spent (and please fill out a Gift Aid form, so they can reclaim your tax!)

Tuesday led me on a huge barrow hunt, including the massive Tich Barrow, one of the Starapark Barrows, the Advent Triple Barrow (a rarity), and the Crowdy Reservoir Barrow and then several wind swept hours in the Roughtor area, including the Showery Tor ring cairn and cheesewring, and the Showery Tor Embanked Avenue, the Showery Tor Downs Cairn, Roughtor Slopes Cairn and three possible standing stones in the area. In an action packed day I also went to the fascinating King Arthur’s Hall, , the nearby King Arthur’s Downs Stone Circles, the Casehill Cairn, and explored around the area; expect a diagram soon! On the way home I had a quick stop at Helsbury Castle.

Like it or loathe it I thought The Museum of Witchcraft – museumofwitchcraft.com – was worth a visit so the next day I went to see it in Boscastle’s picturesque harbour. I was glad to see the Museum asking people not to have fires, leave rubbish or ‘inappropriate offerings’ at ancient sites. Later I visited three great cliff castle’s close by – Willabury Cliff Castle (Boscastle) plus the fascinating ‘stitch’ system of agriculture on Forrabury Common, Willabury Cliff Castle (Tintagel), and Tintagel itself. I also saw the curious Rocky Valley Rock Carvings but I’m even less convinced now. I had a quick search for Ugworthy Barrows (actually over the border in Devon) and the rare Woolley Long Barrow.

I really don’t seem to have got the hang of these ‘holidays’ have I? Not much resting going on, so I only went out on the moors late on Thursday, and spent some of Friday re-reading one of favourite books on the beach at Crackington Haven (‘Life and Times of Michael K’ by J.M.Coetzee if anyone is interested).

So several hours on Thursday were spent on Fox Tor & East Moor and in the Leskernick area of Bodmin Moor. Two totally different environments in one way (the former gorsey and brown, the later green but scarred and pitted like the moon) separated by the A30 but both full of ancient sites, and continued finds. East Moor includes the Fox Tor Stone Row (apparently), the East Moor Stone Row, and possible Menhir / Stone setting, and the Nine Stones of Altarnun. The Leskernick area is still being explored and new things still being found. My few hours included Leskernick Stone Row, a cairn near the stone row, Leskernick Stone Circel (Northern), Leskernick Stone Circle (South), the Leskernick ‘Quoit’, the Cairns on the summit of The Beacon, and a possible Kerbed Cairn and Barrow Cemetery on The Beacon

Showery Tor

There on the left on the way up to Roughtor! I’m sure that’s Showery tor and I’m sure that looks like a mushroom! The gods have been at play here and they’ve made a wonder!Mmmmmmmm...

Showery Tor

Easily reached from Roughtor carpark.
Head towards the left most peak.

This strange weathered granite formation is like a mini Cheesewring.
themodernantiquarian.com/browse.php?site_id=298

The site is natural but is completely surrounded by an ancient ring cairn of granite stones. There is also evidence of hut circles and ancient field enclosures all over the place. Nice views too

Sites within 20km of Showery Tor