Fogue

It's been a weekend in the Iron Age for me - more so than usual I might say.

Firstly I got some images from a film shoot I took part in last January on Dartmoor

Fortunately you can't see my feet in this shot. It was freezing and I was switching my authentic period footwear for some thoroughly unauthentic but nice and warm modern ones at every chance I got. 


Anyway I digress - it was another weekend in Cornwall but for walking not filming. Fogues are uniquely Cornish.  Man-made underground "caves" used for who knows what. They are often considered to have ritual purpose and the one at the B&B we were staying in particularly so.

This is Boleigh Fogue - considered to be one of the best. As it is in the garden of a private house you need permission to access it.  As guests of the B&B  though we had unrestricted access to it.

At the entrance ( on the left hand side) is the only known Iron Age humanoid carving in Cornwall. It has been suggested that it is the representation of a deity. It is actually much clearer in the photograph than it is on the stone. I took several pictures of this but only two actually recorded on the card.

And the passage way. There is also a chamber off to the left which has a large stone inside. Far too big to have been squeezed in to the chamber entrance. There are no pictures of this as my attempts to photograph the chamber and its contents failed. The camera simply didn't work there at all. Make of this what you will!






So on to  Bosporthennis Fogue. Now this did take some finding. The forecast was for sunshine and showers. What we actually got was Cornish fog and rain. This one is really off the beaten track but so well worth the effort.

Remains of the associated Iron Age settlement

The fogue ( beehive hut) itself. Unlike Boleigh  this one was not camera shy! Although it is above ground it resembles Carn Euny so strongly in both size and orientation that it is considered a fogue. Maybe it had a earth covering at one time?

The current entrance. There is a small chamber which you can just see to the right. Sadly it was full of the usual polyester ribbon detritus so beloved of some neo-pagans. We were obviously not the only ones to have searched out this site.

Return to the West Country

Rather an unexpected expedition this week.

You may ( or may not) recall a trip several months ago to Bodmin and to see the Hurlers - a stone circle on the moor.

A chance discovery on the web showed an archeological dig going on there this weekend as as we had to be in Okehampton on the Sunday it seemed to be an event we shouldn't pass up.

A Bronze age crystal pavement was being uncovered for the first time since the 1930s. The pavement links the circles on the moor and is believed to be the only one in the UK.  The original records were buried in the archives and forgotton about until accidently ediscovered.

This was a week long project and today was the last day. We got there before the archeologists but they had it well fenced off so it wasn't possible to get close. The stones were muddy  but we were informed that they are white quartz.

They were taking some heavy duty camera equipment on to the site when we left so I guess they'll get far better pictures and probably clean up the stones before the photo shoot.

Not exactly a hive of activity at the moment!

I did get more than enough shots of the Hurlers a few months ago but couldn't resist a few more. It was a very warm still day for late September and other than a few dog waters ( and the odd archeologist of course) it was very quite. Unlike last time when you couldn't take a step without falling over a picnicker!


 So this pavement? What was it's original function? It links two of the three circles but doesn't seem to pass between the stones. Both ends of the pavement align with a stone rather than a "gap"  - unless of course the stones are not in their original positions which is quite possible. 

The Hurlers' original use is still unknown and subject to speculation for example  some believe its alignment mirrors the celestial bodies that make up Orion's Belt . 

Holey Stones Batman!

A grey and wet day and my camera battery died unexpectedly in Cwm Pwca this afternoon. I'm sure Puck had nothing to do with it of course.

So back to the Cornwall pictures and this is an odd one indeed.

Mên-an-Tol of course. A very famous set of stones and very strange. The name simply means "the hole stone " 







It's a bit of a mystery. There is a theory that it is the remains of a stone circle, in which case the holed stone would surely have had significant ritual importance but it's unclear whether the stones are in their original position of have been moved.

The hole is big enough for an adult to crawl through and has the reputation  for being able to cure a bad back ( its alternative name is the Crick stone!). I didn't put it to the test but my companion did and swears that he has had no further trouble...


We were early enough to have the site to ourselves but the hordes arrived just as we were leaving. Including a druid and a cameraman.

As I said - a strange place.

Onward then and off to Lanyon Quoit which is another well known site. Probably because it is right by the road and needs no effort to access.

Originally this had 4 uprights and was apparently orientated to the cardinal points. A storm brought it crashing down and one of the supports was broken. It was re- erected on just 3 pillars and at right angles to its original position ( why?).

This was busy, really busy. One strange thing we did notice at most of the old sites was the lack of British visitors. The French/Dutch/Germans though all seem to be interested in our ancient heritage, far more than we seem to be and we followed the same cars to many of the same places.

Strange.

In search of King Arthur

Without any success I hasten to add! Geoffrey of Monmouth has a lot to answer for but I guess the local tourist industry is grateful.

Tintagel, whilst a beautiful setting, has not a shred of evidence to support its claim to the legendary king but that doesn't stop the town capitalising on the possibility of course! Another Green World which is Peter Pracownik's shop and studio is well worth a visit if you like fantasy art and the Old Post Office is quite interesting. Otherwise just head down to the coastline and castle itself.

The scenery is amazing. No photographs do justice to it. The castle itself was built on the headland and the complex spreads on to the adjacent island.

Built around 1230   but with evidence of habitation dating back to Roman times the castle is now completely ruined.


It is a steep walk down to the castle ( you can pay an additional charge and be ferried by landrover) and once you are there you are faced with  endless flights of steep steps back up but the views are worth it.


 Merlin's Cave is accessible from the beach ( more steps!) and the long climb up to the top of the island is rewarded by the remains of Edward of Cornwall's castle.










Little is still standing, some of that being rebuilt aswell but the floor plans of mainly rooms/dwelllings can still be seen

The Garden of Eden meets Dionysus

From one end of the country to the other and the Eden project in Cornwall. This was once a disused clay pit which has been transformed by the use of  "biomes" ( large plastic bubbles to the rest of us) into a global garden.

The scale is quite breathtaking and in the rainforest biome you could quite easily be in a sanitised rainforest. An aerial walkway gives panoramic views of the interior. In keeping with the educational nature of the project there are some static displays depicting village houses and an eye opening area of devastation representing the amount of rainforest cut down every ten minutes.




Next door is the  Mediterranean biome with the most amazing piece of installaton art - The Rite of Dionysus by the sculptor Tim Shaw.

Dionysus himself is represented as a huge copper bull in a vineyard and  surounded by the maenads or the "raving ones".

Classically the maenads were portrayed as inspired by Dionysus into a state of ecstatic frenzy, through a combination of dancing and drunkeness until all self control was lost and they would  hunt down animals  and tear  them to pieces.

The spirit of this frenzy has been captured manificently by Shaw in his depiction of the dancing maenads.