My last day on my own on this trip, and I decided to travel around the beautiful Bodmin Moor. Most of my knowledge of the area probably comes from my love of Time Team, all of their episodes online really got me through the pandemic. As well as just hiking the moors I wanted to see some of the sites I had seen on the show.
To properly explore Bodmin on my own, I got a rental car. That is always an adventure in England. I can manage driving narrow lanes and on the wrong side of the road. But doing it in a vehicle larger than I’m used to, where I never feel like I know my width was an extra challenge. I ended up on some very narrow roads that didn’t even seem wide enough for ONE car, let alone navigating if you came face to face with another. Luckily I really only had to reverse down a lane way once.
I started this morning with another lovely breakfast at the hotel before setting off. Going counter clockwise around Bodmin my first stop was Golitha Falls. It was a pretty little spot close to the road so an easy walk. Lots of people out this morning, and lots of dogs running about. It had the ruins of old wheel housing from the old workings in the area, it is now a protected area with lots of old growth oaks and flora and fauna.
I kept along the road to the town of Minions with has some beautiful stone circles, the Hurlers, just a short walk from the car park. I kept walking along to moor up towards the Cheesewring, which is a stack of stones resembling the slabs of the same name used to press cider apples. These ones are enormous and there is debate if they are a man made monument or naturally occurring. The area was also heavily quarried. Some of the stone cladding along the Tower Bridge is from here.
I love the open ramble laws of Britain, it was really neat to just wander through this field, past the stones and then continuing up the Tor. I passed cows, sheep and horses all in the field. You also have to be careful while driving because the sheep had not been taught to check before crossing!
At the top of the Cheesewring were lots of pits that looked to be from mining and quarrying. It is hard for a novice like me to know which stone circles are Victorian quarries, which are old mining pits and which could be as old as the Bronze Age Rillaton Barrow I was able to find on the top. They are all, however, stunning. I didn’t go all the way to the top. My stamina and my ankle are just not what they were a few years ago and I had a whole day of agony, sorry hiking, ahead of me.
There were a few interesting spots I would have liked to try and find along the moor, but a couple of the monuments don’t really have road markers. You just need to find the right lay by and footpath along the road and head off for a walk. So I did stick to the better marked spots. The next part of my route ended up being a bit poorly planned with some driving back and forth. I stopped first in the village of Altarnun that was recommended soley for having a pretty little stone bridge and a lovely 15th century church. Both were picture perfect, but it probably wasn’t worth navigating the narrow roads in and out for just 15 min!
I headed up the highway a little bit - two lanes! Wide and open! To the Jamaican Inn. Famed for being a smugglers hide out, the original location was built as a staging post for travellers across the moor. It got a reputation for smuggling and became famous due to a novel written in 1936 by Daphne Du Maurier. It got its name as the original owner of the area was also once the British Governor to Jamaica.
I had a nice lunch there and looked around the 18th century buildings. I think if there is ever a return visit to Cornwall this might be a good place to stay as well. It’s also another allegedly haunted site. With a gorgeous pub for lunch.
Next was a bit of back tracking, I wanted to go see Rough Tor and google was recommending driving through Altarnun. A little bit of sleuthing and I decided to take a slightly “longer” route. The roads seemed to be bigger and I was right and got to drive at a decent speed for most of the way to the spot. Rough Tor is part of what Time Team had investigated in Bodmin so I was quite interested to see it. During their weekend you couldn’t seem to turn around with out tripping over prehistoric round houses. I’m not even sure I walked the best parts and I was not disappointed.
I’m not sure what I was thinking, I managed 3.5km and an elevation gain of over 200m in just an hour. The wind was howling and the rain had started. It was everything one could expect of hiking a British Moor. I didn’t even have the goal of making it to the top of the Tor. I just staggered passed the amused cows and sheep to the top of the gradual rise, and saved the steeper stone top for tougher souls. It was incredible. There were stone circles everywhere, likely the prehistoric round houses. Stone lines were field boundaries, dating from the medieval and further back into the mists of time. And stacks of stones at the top of the hill that were carried up there by people a lot more determined to me.
With the day coming to an end, the wind threatening to steal my hat, and my knees about to never forgive me, I headed back down to the car to head back to the hotel for my last evening in Cornwall. Of course that wasn’t the end of the adventure, I still had to drive the narrow roads back to the bigger towns. At one point I actually stopped driving to take a picture of how ridiculously narrow it seemed for even one vehicle!
But I made it safely back to the Bodmin Jail Hotel, which is a gorgeous luxury hotel with amazing food. My one word of warning is to maybe never visit alone. At least during dinner in the old Chapel I have had some issues with low moods. Maybe that is just me though and just a coincidence…you’ll have to see for yourself!