KIT HILL from the INCLINE CAR PARK

This is the second time we have congregated at the Incline Car Park (at the top of this map) for a walk at Kit Hill. However the weather today could not be more different; back in the summer of 2015 it was the sun we had to shelter from whereas today it was the easterly wind!

After passing through a wooden gate everyone followed Maggie along the path marked in blue on the map above as it wound its way upwards between the dying ferns and bracken. This side of the hill was sheltered with blue skies and fast moving clouds and we soon began to warm up. A number of ponies were dotted about on this bright autumnal morning and after having cropped all the grass, were now eating the last of blackberries. This one looks heavily pregnant and I wondered if it was normal for ponies to give birth to young as late in the year as October.

Continuing onwards and upwards, a wall of granite appeared in front of us but the path turned left here and we kept going, pausing occasionally to admire the stunning views as far as Dartmoor in the east. On arrival at the road which carries traffic to the Summit car park, Maggie led us straight across past the Quarry car park and still following the blue line we headed southwards. Soon everyone was passing the ruins of South Kit Hill mine (below) where the path took a westwardly turn.

Passing through a wooden gate we turned right along the rocky track marked in Yellow on the map and climbed slowly and carefully upwards towards the ornate chimney stack on the summit where we had a well-earned break. Now we could see the old market town of Callington nestling below us with Bodmin Moor way over on the horizon. If we turned and looked to the south we were rewarded with the un-mistakable view of Plymouth Sound with the River Tamar glinting in the bright sunshine. After a stroll down the tarmacked road we turned left towards the silent quarry as we have so many times in the past; this time though we only paused long enough for the newer walkers to observe the rock faces surrounding the now water-filled hole left after years of quarrying, but turn the clock back about 150 years and this would have been a noisy, industrial scene with blasting and hammering taking place and chisels skilfully shaping the rock on site. Splitting granite needed skill to look for the lines of weakness in the grain of the rock. First a hole was made 3 inches deep and the ‘feathers’ were inserted. The tare was positioned between them and hammered in as in as shown in the photo on the left. A long row of these tares and feathers were inserted along the fault line and hit in turn until the slab of granite split. One false move with a chisel later when it was being shaped and the whole slab had to be wasted; even today many partly worked pieces still lie around after being discarded. Some of these chunks have indentations where the tares and feathers had been inserted as seen here on this rock lying in a few inches of water.

While researching climbing at the quarry for a previous article, I discovered that some enthusiasts like to go wild swimming in the water here which is said to be 45 metres deep and very cold as it is fed by a spring. Apparently you first wade in along a shelf and then there is a sudden drop just past the rock pile near where we were standing, rather them than me! Other enthusiasts prefer to jump into the water from the top of the cliff face and as I wrote once before, the first known tombstoning fatality in the UK took place here at Kit Hill. Apparently it was a sunny Saturday in 2003 when, a 24 year old man from St Ann’s Chapel was egged on by a group of mates to jump 100ft into this water-filled quarry. When he did not reappear from the jump, his twin brother dived repeatedly into the water to try and find him. His body was later recovered by police divers who described it as a ‘tragic accident’.

Our walk was almost at an end as we just had to walk down the incline which was edged with shrubbery including a number of Rowan trees sporting red berries; wagons once carried the stone on trucks along rails where we were walking. On arrival at the sidings at the foot of this steep hill the stone continued on the East Cornwall Mineral Railway and down the incline to the quayside at Calstock.