CARADON HILL, TRETHEVY QUOIT and CROWS NEST
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CARADON HILL, TRETHEVY QUOIT and CROWS NEST After driving through the village of Pensilva, we arrived at Tokenbury Corner on the edge of Caradon Hill, today’s meeting point for one of those occasional walks we do which is beyond the boundary of the Tamar Valley AONB. It was another good turnout and soon everyone was heading west in the direction of the ruined Holman’s engine house that we could see in the distance. This appeared to have the outline of a person where once there was a window and Netti, today’s walk leader told me last time I walked here that it is known locally as ‘The old Man of the Moor’. Caradon Hill is encircled by engine houses, chimney stacks, and thousands of tonnes of waste rock from the various mines which we would see as we walked along. These are the remnants of a once thriving industry that sprawled across the hill and now form another part of Cornwall’s World Heritage Site. Lying far from the coast and lacking surfaced roads it proved difficult to bring in equipment, fuel and supplies vital for the development of the mines, and equally difficult to export the copper ore which they were producing. It took ten years to build the railway which was to link the mines to Liskeard, and from there to the port of Looe. Mining records show that over 650,000 tons of copper ore was mined within the district in little less than three decades when workers flooded to the area almost overnight, many left for Australia when the boom was over. On this rugged, windswept and mostly treeless area, the ruins cling to the hillside while beneath our feet the shafts and tunnels lead off in all directions. In the peace and tranquillity today it is hard to imagine just how bustling and noisy it would have been back in the 19th century. Turning left before reaching Holman’s engine house, Rosy took the lead from here on, continuing downwards and passing first Higher Trelake Farm and then right through Trenouth Farm with its cluster of old stone buildings. A bit further on these wooden snowmen peeping over the top of the wall brought a smile to our faces. At the end of the narrow lane we arrived at a junction where Trevethy Quoit sat just ahead. This monument is known locally as ‘The giant’s house’ but the name actually means ‘Place of the grave’. Trethevy is considered to be the best preserved quoit in Cornwall and dates to Neolithic times around 3,000 B.C. Here we had a short break allowing us time to walk around the outside of the quoit and take photographs or just sit on the nearby roundabout at the road junction. Up close the quoit was over eight feet tall and was constructed of four large overlapping slabs of granite at the sides and one at the back. On top of these was a massive capstone with a mysterious hole in one corner. The slab at the back appears to have fallen in and Jeff and Phil decided it made a good place to have a rest! The Neolithic period is when Britain’s earliest inhabitants first began farming the land as opposed to just hunting and gathering and they would have settled in stable communities, clearing the land and planting wheat and barley; they also raised herds of domesticated sheep, cattle, and pigs. Once farming was established, small communities began to settle down; the clothing of these people would have been simple hide garments decorated with things like animal teeth and necklaces made from bones. Their life span was short, about 35 years for men and 30 for women. They would have worked together to erect their tombs which were sited some distance from their settlements. Leaving the quoit behind us be began the second half of the walk when a huge horse with a female rider passed us in the lane walking in the opposite direction, I am told that by the time it overtook a group of men a bit further back it squirted a slimy poo from its backside, as this hit the ground it bounced back up meaning they had to take evasive action rather quickly! It had been a cold, crisp and rather windy morning but everyone warmed up as Rosy led us uphill across the southern side of Bodmin Moor. Here it was grassy underfoot, closely cropped by the sheep we could see dotted about. Beneath our feet there were sheep and rabbit droppings to dodge while at the side of the track we spotted hoof prints in the soft mud from the ponies that live here on Bodmin Moor although we hadn’t seen any today. After passing beneath what looked like a railway bridge we were on the home stretch as we continued climbing upwards. All around as we neared the car path, there were small gorse bushes bent double in the gusty winds over time. The air was so clear we could see for miles, it was just stunning. .