Bodmin West Moor and Leskernick Hill

 A rather more ambitious Sunday afternoon stroll this week as we headed up onto the West Moor from Trewint. This part of the moor is perhaps the most isolated we have ever visited. It doesn’t have the sites like Rough Tor or Brown Willy, there is no Cheesewring or Hurlers or Gonamena Valley to attract visitors. It is a place for 'proper' walkers, amongst whom I rather immodestly place ourselves. I think we will come here again as it looks like the place to listen to the chorus of the Skylarks as they rise and dip and dive above the windblown open spaces.

Here's the route for this jaunt. We started and ended in Trewint and headed out to Leskernick Hill via Westmoor Gate. Then we went across West Moor to the gate near South Carne and walked back to Trewint across fields. My GPS logged this at 6.7 miles so it was a good stretch of the legs in very decent weather.

The lane from Trewint leading up to Westmoor Gate. As I've observed previously Westmoor Gate is to the east of Eastmoor Gate. A misnomer or perhaps it is to the west of this part of the moor? Whatever, a small matter.

Here's a drone shot I came across recently and it gives a good idea of the walk. We came up the lane in the bottom left and headed onto the moor where the water is glistening. From there we headed top left, middle and then middle right. The terrain looks rather flat from this height but it was quite undulating and pock-marked with tin-streaming gullies and peat tracks.

Out onto the open moor and the first thing we come across is evidence of tin streaming in this massive 'gert'.

Imaginative Caption #344: Horse on a rock.

Looking over West Moor towards Brown Willy, Cornwall's highest point, at 1,378 feet (420 meters) above sea level. Its original Cornish name is Bronn Wennili, meaning 'hill of the swallows'.
There was a move a few years back to change the name of Brown Willy to stop people sniggering. But can place names simply be changed? Places are what people call them.  If we are to see, and be offended by, double entendres everywhere, what is to become of Great Cockup and Little Cockup in Cumbria; Crapstone in Devon; Penistone in South Yorkshire; Brokenwind in Aberdeenshire; Shitterton and Prickly Bottom Dorset; North Piddle in Worcestershire; Slack Bottom in West Yorkshire; Twatt on Orkney: Pratts Bottom in Kent and Titty Hill in West Sussex?

And while we’re about it, let’s change Bodmin Moor back to the original ‘Foweymoor’ (= Fo’ymoor) and name it after its river like ‘Exmoor’ and ‘Dartmoor’.  For one thing, ‘Bodmin Moor’ was an Ordnance Survey invention of 1813.  For another, linguistically ‘Foweymoor’ flows off the tongue, whilst ‘Bodmin Moor’ is rather lumpy.

Looking northwards towards Buttern Hill. Another place that deserves a visit - it's on the list.

Just over a mile along the track and we are looking down on Leskernick Cottage, nestling in the valley through which the nascent River Fowey runs. It's actually a holiday let and the website says this about it: "With its remote location, Leskernick is ‘off grid’. No mains services means a generator supplies the electricity along with a newly installed solar system, which means summer months on the moor are now powered by sunlight. Originally a one up/one down miner’s cottage built from local granite stone, Leskernick is now a Grade II listed comfortable home, providing a cosy refuge, whilst surrounded by the wilds of the moor. There are 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms (one ensuite), a well-equipped kitchen, snug sitting room and wonderful dining room which features full height bifold doors, allowing you to ‘moor watch’ whatever the weather."

Moving up onto the slopes of Leskernick Hill, we came across this stone row. Orientated, or so it would appear, with Brown Willy.

In and amongst the stones and clitter on this side of Leskernick Hill, there is a large, late Neolithic/Bronze Age settlement complex consisting of 50 houses and ancillary structures separated by a corridor. The houses are associated with compounds and field boundaries straddling the lower slopes of the hill. 

Look closely and one of the enclosures can be made out.

On the ground, it is quite difficult getting an overall impression of the scale of the settlement. But a satellite image from Google Earth shows the true extent of the site. The blue dots show the track we took: the circle our snack stop.

All around amongst the clitter was evidence of granite working, no more so than this mill stone, replete with central axis hole. Pity it is split. Before or after completion? Before or after the stone mason had been paid for his/her labours?

On the horizon, from left to right, the profiles of Brown Willy, Rough Tor (pronounced Rowtor), Little Rough Tor and Showery Tor. In the mid-ground,  is a propped stone which, it is estimated, could date from 2000BC. The axis of the long top stone points in the direction of Rough Tor, but more importantly the small window created by the positioning of the stones forms a little portal through which the setting sun at mid summer can be viewed. And I know that must be true because a friend has taken a photograph of just that.

Another split mill stone. We saw a total of three. What were they used for or what would they have been used for if they had been finished? I'm no geologist but I don't think the granite in these parts is of top quality with regards to hardness and would probably not be good enough for flour milling. Possibly for grinding animal feed or, perhaps, crushing apples in a cider press?

One of the very few trees on this part of the moor, surviving because it was growing in quite a sheltered area. It was close to a structure of some sort but not something big enough to be a farmhouse.

The tree is almost at the centre of this image, right next to a massive stream-working line. Perhaps the structure was associated with this? Although the ground between the viewpoint and the structure looks pretty inocuous, it is, in fact, extremely marshy with stretches of blanket bog. Not a pleasant crossing and best walked around rather than through.

The OS map says 'ford'. Luckily there was a reasonable track to the left that removed the need to wade through. Note to self for future reference: try and keep to the high ground.

The spires on the tower of Altarnun church in the distance, with a couple of wind turbines further away.

Imaginative Caption #345: Robin on a fence post.