Moth

Access: Easy access. The quoit is visible from the road, through a kissing-gate and stands only a few yards into a small grassy field. There are a couple of parking spaces by the quoit next to a grassy ‘island’ at the road junction between Crow’s Nest, Tremar and Derite. It is signposted, but we found that the signs seemed to disappear at Crow’s Nest (the direction we arrived from) and had to use the map.

Saturday 6 March 2004
Wonderful. I visited once about 8 years ago and had great memories of the place. It was just as I remembered.

On our journey to Land’s End, I made this visit to Trethevy mandatory. As Jane had been lusting after it for years – ever since she got the Mod Ant book – I got no argument!

Looming, incongruous, spectacular. I know I’m not alone in thinking this is THE ‘must-see’ dolmen.

We chilled for 30-40 mins and at uncanny speed, Jane produced the painting (she calls em ‘sketches’) that appears elsewhere on this page.

Access: See the Hurlers. The path leads directly north and is incredibly easy to follow because you can see the Cheesewring all the way. It undulates over reasonably even moorland for about half a mile’s easy going until you reach the foot of the hill with the Cheesewring outcrops on top. It then gets steep and considerably harder going as you negotiate craggy exposed rock and boulders.

Saturday 6 March 2004
This is such a great place! I have to confess that on my first visit to the Hurlers I hadn’t bothered to walk up here. The views and feeling of wildness and freedom are everything you could expect.

It was cold, but bearable as it wasn’t particularly windy. So Jane painted while I poked about amongst the outcrops and investigated the north side of the hill.

On the way back for another look (successful this time) for Rillaton Barrow we spotted Daniel Gumb’s House low on the hillside at the side of the quarry, just below the most teetering and prominent outcrop nearest the Hurlers. I’d forgotten about it on the way up, but for some reason had thought it was on the other side of the hill anyway....

Access: See the Hurlers. About a quarter of a mile from the Hurlers on a fairly good path leading to the Cheesewring. About halfway to the Cheesewring is an almost non-existent path to the right (east), which takes you to the barrow. It is a distinct cratered mound, a little to the SE of the highest point on this part of the moor. Probably just as easy to find by heading NNE straight across the moor from the Hurlers.

Saturday 6 March 2004
Can’t add much to previous posts, other than to support the view that for ‘bump’ fans (I’m one) it’s well worth a visit.

Battered and pretty wild, the barrow bears many scars from treasure-hunters over the years. The exposed stones of the spot where the famous cup and other artefacts were found are surprisingly diminutive and not visible from ‘ground level’. We thought we’d got the wrong place on the way from the Hurlers to the Cheesewring, but luckily we had another look on the way back and realised our mistake. I’d have been really disappointed to miss it. Good view of the Hurlers from the top of the barrow too.

Access: See the Hurlers.

Saturday 6 March 2004
By the track SW of the Hurlers lie the Pipers, a pair of appreciable standing stones, clearly part of the same complex. Just as Craig Weatherhill says there is doubt of their antiquity, Aubrey Burl seems to accept it. Guess you pays yer money and takes yer choice. Worth a look anyway.

Access: Pretty easy. By road, head for the small village of Minions off the B3254 near Liskeard. The Hurlers and the Pipers are on the NW side of the road at the SW end of the village. There is a car park that might get quite busy peak season (with attached barely recognisable cairn).

The stones are about 200 yards (tops) across relatively flat grassy moor and are not at all overgrown. May be boggy in wet weather.

There is also a roughish track that runs just to the SE of the circles, but this is probably no better for access to the circles. It does lead straight to the Pipers though. (And on towards the Craddock Moor circle etc).

Saturday 6 March 2004
What a place to start off my first Cornwall trip in around 8 years! My memories of the place turned out to be really hazy – I didn’t remember it being so impressive!

It came up as a candidate for somewhere to stop on the way to the Land’s End peninsula, simply because I really wanted Jane to see Trethevy Quoit. As the Hurlers are so close, it seemed like a viable ‘addition’, though I wasn’t that enthusiastic.

In fact, I was more interested in the neighbouring Rillaton Barrow, just because I hadn’t seen it before!

Of course I’ve read a fair amount about the Hurlers since that first visit and seen the pics on here, so I should’ve known to expect more. After all, it’s not everywhere that you get to see 3 stone circles in a row with a couple of nice ‘probable’ outliers (see the Pipers and a prominent ‘proto-temple’!!!

Actually seeing the Hurlers again though, I saw that my memory it as ‘scrappy’ and ‘wrecked’ was far fom the truth. OK, the south circle is largely gone but its presence is clear. And the other 2 are a bit ‘knocked-about’, but far more complete than I expected. Along with the setting, this all makes for a pretty damn spectacular ‘monument’!

With the weather changing constantly as the dark but broken clouds scudded across the sun, the ‘atmosphere’ of the site seemed to change from moment to moment. Picturesque and welcoming, to bleak and unfriendly in seconds. Considering the proximity of the village, it’s amazing how remote the site can feel after a short time there.

It is impossible to overlook the presence of the Cheesewring, though it’s far enough away that it doesn’t dominate the site, and isn’t exactly an integral part of it in the way of say, the Cnoc an Tursa at Callanish, or the Gorsedd at Bryn Celli Ddu. Its significance is surely indisputable, however, and seems clearly to have been part of the overall ‘vision’ of the place.

If you visit, do make sure you walk up to the Cheesewring and Rillaton Barrow if you can!

We didn’t make it to Craddock Moor stone circle and other sites on the moor, as we still had quite a distance to go before journey’s end (and Trethevy Quoit was calling). We did stop briefly at the Long Tom christianised menhir though, as we were passing.