A circumnavigation.................

...........not around the globe but around Kit Hill. We decided we'd deviate from our normal route and take a track following an approximation of the 900 foot contour line. A clockwise circumperambulation of about 3 miles - a very pleasant way to pass a couple of hours on a sunny (yes, sunny) afternoon. Lots to see, as ever, and after an unexpected detour (I got lost!) we came across a part of the Hill we had not visited before.  It just goes to show that no matter how well you think you know somewhere, there's always something new to discover. And we think we saw a blackcap flitting from bush to bush. Hard to tell as I'm not that good at identifying LBTs (little brown things - for the uninitiated that's an ornithological term).

Not a hole in the ground but an abandoned in-situ granite pit. The granite, in the centre, would be shaped as much as possible on site and then transported to where it was going to be used.  Dartmoor is in the far distance.

 

A wheel pit (the dark line in front of the tree) at South Kit Hill mine. Judging from the dimensions, this one would have been about 40 foot in diameter, originally water powered from a combination of reservoirs and leats. Not easy when it's located near the top of a 1000 foot hill.

 

If you can make out some circular depressions, you are looking at buddles. These were an end-stage of ore separation and were involved in grinding and washing the near final product. The origin of the word is German and indicates the legacy of technique transfer in the Middle Ages.

 

The view looking west-ish towards Windsor and Redmoor engine houses. Bodmin Moor is in the distance.

And what do you do with the granite you don't want? You stick it in a great big pile.

North Kit Hill mine - an adit going horizontally into the hill with a vertical shaft immediately in front of it. Both homes to many types of bats - at least 7 different species at the last count. Not by me, of course, but by someone adept at wielding his bat frequency detector.

 

And the view south-ish. A hazy day but Plymouth Sound was visible about 15 miles away.