Louden Hill

Nearest town:
Hallworthy (9km NNE)
OS reference:
SX138797
OS sheet:
200
Latitude:
50° 35' 12.04 N
Longitude:
4° 37' 50.53 W
Added to TMA by

Images

Image of Louden Hill (Cairn(s)) by postman

Rough tor beyond. I liked this half a cairn very much, especially the little cist inserted outside the kerb stones on the left, dainty and delicate.

Image credit: Chris Bickerton
postman
postman Mar 22, 2016
Image of Louden Hill (Cairn(s)) by postman

Louden stone circle is on the horizon left of the track, the other two cairns are the other side of the track half way up.

Image credit: Chris Bickerton
postman
postman Mar 22, 2016
Image of Louden Hill (Cairn(s)) by postman

Garrow Tor is the geographical feature on the horizon, note the tiny cist inserted into the cairn outside of the large kerb stones.

Image credit: Chris Bickerton
postman
postman Mar 22, 2016
Image of Louden Hill (Cairn(s)) by postman

Two pairs of cairns each side of the track, both pairs are made of two types, one type have large cists, the other is a more normal, less interesting type, this is the eastern pairs “normal” cairn.
I hope that made sense.

Image credit: Chris Bickerton
postman
postman Mar 22, 2016
Image of Louden Hill (Cairn(s)) by postman

The north of the track western pair of cairns, the one with the big cist.

Image credit: Chris Bickerton
postman
postman Mar 22, 2016
Image of Louden Hill (Cairn(s)) by postman

The big cisted cairn posing brazenly in the shadow of Rough Tor and Brown willy.

Image credit: Chris Bickerton
postman
postman Mar 22, 2016
Image of Louden Hill (Cairn(s)) by postman

The western pairs normal cairn with Rough tor and Brown Willy.

Image credit: Chris Bickerton
postman
postman Mar 22, 2016
Image of Louden Hill (Cairn(s)) by thesweetcheat

The cist in the cairn at SX 1350 7968, looking towards Garrow Tor.

Image credit: A. Brookes (19.6.2015)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Jul 13, 2015
Image of Louden Hill (Cairn(s)) by thesweetcheat

Cairn with fabulous cist at SX 1350 7968. Looking east towards Roughtor and Brown Willy, with Fernacre visible in between (although not easy to see at this resolution).

Image credit: A. Brookes (19.6.2015)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Jul 13, 2015
Image of Louden Hill (Cairn(s)) by pure joy

I was pretty determined to spend ‘Christmas Day’ 2002 on a wind swept moor amongst ancient sites, and I managed to do just that.

I started with a quiet drive to the most famous quoit in East Cornwall, the huge Trethevy Quoit. I had seen it so many times in pictures; it was great to see it for real.

I moved onto toward the Hurlers but not before stopping at The Longstone Cross / Long Tom Cross. It may have once been a menhir that was then Christianised by carving a cross on its face. The stone stands alone, often amongst sheep roaming the moor, and on the horizon a line of old mine chimneys can been seen, marking the lode (course) of a copper vein. Even on this day there were lots of walkers and doggie people around The Hurlers, which was nice. It’s good to see people taking an interest (even a passing interest) in our history. Not only are the circles fascinating, but the whole place is steeped in history, from the Pipers, Rillaton Barrow, the Cheesewring, Stowe’s Pound, and Craddock moor sites, to the plethora of old mining ruins.

Without a map or compass you may be lucky enough to stagger across the fallen Craddock Moor Circle 1 km North West of the Hurlers whilst exploring Craddock Moor. Even with a map and compass you may not find them as the stones are all recumbent and are not visible from any distance. Further on is the tiny Craddock Moor Stone Row. There’s no easy way to describe how to get to this but if you wanna go try my instructions (or practice better compass reading that me – not hard!).

A few kilometres away from the Hurlers area, King Doniert’s Stone(s) stand in a beautiful walled enclosure, complete with stone benches. The Cornwall Heritage Trust could obviously teach English Heritage a thing or two.

I love ancient sites but sometimes you need a break so I went to the Eden Project on the 26th. This is not a criticism but of all the people who needed to go I wasn’t high on the list – I live a few kilometres from Kew Gardens and they are pretty similar in many ways. Anyway, go and see, and if you do, please spend a minute filling in a Gift Aid form, which means that they can claim 28% extra (over and above your admission fee) from the taxman.

On my way to Bodmin Moor I stopped at Lesquite Quoit but couldn’t properly explore, and had a wander around the huge Lanhydrock estate. The rest of the day was spent on the moor visiting the three stone circles of Stannon, Louden Hill, and Fernacre. Many of my stone counts didn’t match other people’s counts, the most interesting of which may have been Louden Hill where I counted 31 stones, as opposed to Craig Weatherhill’s 16/17 stones.

I also stumbled across something that could be interesting, or could just be a few stones in a quarter circle – I’ve taken the liberty of calling it Louden Hill 2?? I take no responsibility for it being just a couple of stones spotted by an eccentric walker on a lonely moor! I also came across a stone cist and two cairns between Louden Hill and Fernacre, which all seemed to align East-West to a stone in the background. As the night descended it led to the photos coming out very dark and now I scratch my head and wonder if it was just my imagination……a strange day.

Image credit: Martin Bull
pure joy
pure joy Mar 1, 2003

Articles

Louden Hill

postman
postman Mar 22, 2016

Walking the farm track from Fernacre stone circle east to Louden hill stone circle there are four cairns in two pairs, the first pair are south of and close to the track.
The two cairns are about twenty feet apart and quite different looking, one is just your average stony mostly grass covered cairn, but the other has three sides of a large cist with a few kerb stones still standing, inserted into the north side of the remaining cairn material a small cist has been inserted outside of the kerb stones. I liked it a lot, if a cairn can look cute then this one would be on an internet based show called cairns make you Lol, or something.
Back to the track and about a hundred yards west the other two cairns are about twenty yards north of the track. Again there are two different looking cairns here, the furthest north is another stony grassy mound, whist the other has a big cist in it, the fourth apparently missing side slab is I think broken and half of it is in the cist. I like big cists me.
Onward to another stone circle.

Louden Hill

pure joy
pure joy Jan 11, 2003

Louden Hill Cist and Cairns – 26.12.2002

Between the Louden Hill and Fernacre Stone Circles there are some interesting cairns to the South of the track. One is totally exposed with the remnants of a cist (map ref approx SX138797) and several standing and recumbent stones around it. After exploring this I walked West and found a cairn about 100 metres away. Then I walked about 7 metres further to the West to some more stones, turned around and found that all of these were aligned to a stone in the background. Within a few degrees this alignment was exactly East-West. Interesting?

Sites within 20km of Louden Hill

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