In May and June, the hedges are a mass of wild flowers. The pink ones are red campions.
Despite being called red campion, its flowers are most definitely pink - varying quite widely in shade from vibrant deep pinks to very pale. The colour is produced by red anthrocyanin compounds which are also responsible for red autumn leaves and red tinges on new growth in some plants as well as flower colours. In red campion, the intensity of the colour is controlled by a pair of genes and several other genes control the exact balance of anthrocyanin compounds within the petals. These are passed down the generations and so pale pink parents are likely to produce pale pink offspring.
The edge of the moorland is an ideal habitat for rowan.
Rowan is a small, deciduous tree that is native to Britain and is also known as "mountain ash" because it grows at high altitudes and the thin leaves superficially resemble ash leaves. However, rowan is actually a member of the rose family.
Another name for rowan is "(wild) service tree". This came about because the Old English name of the tree was syrfe and thus the "service" is in the sense of "serf".
Orange berries appear in July and, once ripe in late August-early September, can be used to make jams. The raw berries are too bitter to eat and contain a chemical that causes indigestion and can lead to kidney damage. Cooking the berries converts this chemical into a benign compound. Freezing reduces the bitterness so this can be done prior to cooking. In the days before freezers, waiting until the first frost before picking was used to achieve something similar.
Rowan is also sometimes called the "chequer tree", perhaps due to the spotted pattern of the fruit, and berries themselves are called "chequers". The berries were used to flavour beer and spirits which is thought to be the origin of the pubs with this name. However the Chequers Estate (country estate gifted to the nation in 1917 on the assumption that forthcoming Prime Ministers might not be from the landed gentry and therefore would be in need of one) is thought to be unrelated (instead based on "Exchequer").
Due to the plentiful supply of water draining off the moor, damselflies are common here in spring.
Damselfly eggs hatch not into damselflies but water-living nymphs which look a bit like a dull-coloured damselfly with a 3-forked tail instead of wings. The tail is actually a set of gills used to breath underwater. When the larva is fully developed, it climbs out of the water on a stem or rock. Its skin then splits open and a damselfly emerges with wings which need to be inflated and dry before it can fly.
The hedgerow trees include oaks.
Wood from the oak has a lower density than water (so it floats) but has a great strength and hardness, and is very resistant to insect and fungal attack because of its high tannin content. This made it perfect for shipbuilding.
The ponies on Bodmin Moor are semi-feral: they are all owned by farmers, but allowed to roam free on the moor. Many are not microchipped and look similar to others, so for people other than their owners, it can be difficult to tell to whom they actually belong. During the winter, natural food is scarce so the farmers supplement the ponies' diets; this prevents the ponies wandering off altogether.
The process of placing trig points on top of prominent hills and mountains began in 1935 to assist in the retriangulation of Great Britain - a project to improve the accuracy of maps which took three decades.
A plate (known as a "flush bracket" and marked with an ID code) on the side of each trig point marked a known measured height above sea level. The brass plate on the top with three arms and central depression (known as a "spider") was used to mount a theodolite which was used to measure the angles between neighbouring trig points very accurately. These angles allowed the construction of a system of triangles which covered the entire country and provided a measurement system accurate to around 20 metres.
From the summit of Fox Tor, look left from the direction you climbed to see the peaks of Dartmoor on a clear day, and right to see Buttern Hill and Brown Willy. The wooded valley to the right is the source of the River Lynher and the tributaries are fed by water draining off East Moor.
Brown Willy is a tor on the north-west area of Bodmin Moor. The name "Brown Willy" is actually a distortion of the Cornish Bronn Wennili which means "hill of swallows". The summit of Brown Willy is the highest point in Cornwall, at 420m above sea level, but only 20m taller than Rough Tor.
The piles or rings of stones known as cairns, were built for a variety of purposes: some ceremonial including burials, some practical such as markers in a calendric sundial. Although much speculation has taken place, the reason for the construction of each is now unknown. When radiocarbon dating was done on nine of the cairns on Bodmin Moor, eight gave average date ranges between 2162 to 1746 BC, suggesting the early Bronze Age was the main building period. The remnants you see today are in many cases a small fragment of the original structure as the rocks from many cairns have since been "re-purposed" for use in drystone walls, buildings, roads etc. The Cornish word for cairn is karn or carn (from karnow, meaning "rock piles") and Cornwall (Kernow) itself may actually be named after the cairns that dot its landscape.
The large boulder is called Graymare Rock.
The word granite comes from the Latin granum (a grain), in reference to its coarse-grained structure. Granite forms from a big blob of magma (known as a pluton) which intrudes into the existing rocks. The huge mass of molten rock stores an enormous amount of heat so the magma cools very slowly below the surface of the Earth, allowing plenty of time for large crystals to form.
Granite formed as a molten blob of rock beneath the surface, underneath millions of tons of other rock. As the granite cooled, it cracked, mostly vertically due to the pressure from above. Hot water circulated through the cracks, reacting chemically with the rocks and depositing minerals. Over millions of years, the softer rocks above were eroded and the pressure from the weight of the rock above was released, causing horizontal cracking in the granite. The result is cubic blocks where the rough edges have been gradually smoothed by weathering.
Seven hut circles remain from a prehistoric settlement on the south-eastern slope of Carey Tor.
The low stone walls remaining as hut circles were once the foundations of a round house. The granite foundations were likely to have been set into cob (mud and straw) walls which provided insulation and draft exclusion over bare-stone walls. A conical thatched roof on a timber frame rested on top of the walls. Heating was via a central fire which required some care with the thatched roof - presumably roof fires were not unheard of! These buildings varied in size from a just over a metre in diameter up to 10 metres. Some had walled enclosures attached and a few also had internal partitions.
The tors to the right are Trewortha Tor (the stony one) and Hawk's Tor (with the more solid granite outcrop on the top).
Tors started out as a lump of granite beneath the surface, which cracked vertically into squares and then part-way through horizontally to form something resembling a stuck-together stack of square pancakes. Millions of years of weathering then gradually rounded these off and widened the cracks between the layers to result in a more burger-like appearance.
In some cases the horizontal cracks didn't go all the way through so the layers are still joined (the skewer through the brioche bun to stretch the burger analogy to its limit). In the cases where they did fully separate, a massive rocking stone such as the famous Logan Rock at Treen could be created, or the whole lot could collapse into a pile of huge rocks.
The "basins" on the tops of some of the tors are also the result of repeated freezing and thawing of water which has collected on the surface.
The word is from the Celtic language but is likely to have come from the Latin turris, meaning "tower", derived from a similar word in Ancient Greek.
In spring, whilst foxgloves seeds are germinating, the established foxglove plants from the previous year start producing their characteristic flower spike. Once these have been fertilised and the seeds have been produced then the plant dies. One foxglove plant can produce over 2 million seeds.
Water pepper grows on the wet ground along the streams and along the verge of the lane.
Water pepper, as the name implies, grows on wet ground such as on the margins of lakes (it's also known as marsh pepper). It's relatively late to appear, not really getting going until June.
The plant is unpalatable to livestock but is eaten by some insects which has given rise to a Japanese saying which transliterates to "Some insects eat water pepper and like it" but is used more like "There's no accounting for taste".
The first record of Bowhayland is from 1342 as Bogheineye. The name is thought to derive from Old English words for a curved track (boga is the word for "bow").
Whilst it's fairly obvious why cows are reluctant to cross a cattle grid, you might be surprised to learn that cows will also not cross a "virtual" cattle grid composed of dark and light lines painted on a completely solid surface. This even works with wild cattle who have never encountered a "real" cattle grid before and so is unlikely to be learned behaviour. It is thought that the reason is due to the limitations of cows' vision, specifically their limited depth perception means that they cannot discriminate between bars over a pit and a series of light and dark lines.
Bluebells flower along the lane in the spring.
In folklore, the bluebell is a symbol of constancy, presumably based on the fact that they flower in the same place every year. It was said that anyone who wears a bluebell is compelled to tell the truth. This could be the origin of the "…something blue…" that a bride should wear on her wedding day.
Common valerian is a tall, upright plant with pink flowers that likes damp ground. It can reach 5-6ft high in sheltered places but in harsher environments such as the coast it's generally 2-3ft tall. The flowers have a pleasant scent and their nectar attracts butterflies.
Due to some very unfortunate naming, there is potential for confusion with red valerian which is both more common in Cornwall and, despite its name, is most often actually pink (although sometimes red or white). If it grows in a wall or hangs out from a verge, or has profuse flowers, or is in flower before June, it's red valerian (even if it's pink or white). If it grows in a damp place and is upright with pale pink flowers in spaced-out flattish clusters a bit like cow parsley, then you've found some not-so-common common valerian.
Valerian root has been used for centuries in herbal remedies to promote sleep. Some scientific analysis has been done on a subset of the broad range of chemical compounds that it contains and an effect is considered plausible although there is not yet any strong clinical evidence to support this. However, the smell of valerian's essential oil is less likely to promote sleep, described as "unwashed feet" or "well-matured cheese".
Valerian root also seems to be an attractant to cats in a similar way to catnip. Perhaps it should be called "catnap"?
The telegraph poles are handy perches for buzzards.
A large proportion of buzzards diet is earthworms and carrion and consequently they have a reputation for being lazy and scavengers. However, when they need to be, buzzards are formidable predators. Diving on rabbits and small mammals from a slow or hovering flight, or from a perch, they nearly always make the kill on the ground.
The Domesday survey of 1086 records Tolcarne as a manor held by "Ermenhald" from Tavistock Abbey which included 2 smallholdings. The manor was the residence of the Tolcarne family until the 17th Century. The current farmhouse dates from the 18th or 19th Century. Pieces of an earlier building's granite window frames have been used within some of the farm walls and as a gatepost. The name of the settlement is from Cornish words tal and carn and means something along the lines of "brow of the tor" - a reference the the ridge above it.
Go through the gate and follow along the wall on the right. Where the path forks, keep right along the fence to reach a gate on the right.
The path to the left at the fork can be used for an optional diversion to the Nine Stones circle (just over half a mile away), returning here to continue the walk.
The Nine Stones Circle, near Fox Tor, comprises a ring of 8 stones with the ninth in the centre. It was reconstructed in the nineteenth century from stones of local granite, although some of the stones have since fallen again or are leaning at precarious angles. Alexander Thom proposed the circle is in lunar alignment with the nearby border stone row which leads towards some cairns, although this has been considered doubtful as the row is likely to be of mediaeval construction.
The first record of the settlement of Clitters is from 1888 OS map. There is nothing recorded for it on the 1840 Tithe map which suggests the two ruined buildings as well as the inhabited one date from Victorian times. The woodland alongside (the Clitters Plantation) is recorded in the 1880s so is likely to be a similar age to the settlement.
Beard-like lichens (known as Old Man's Beard) are very sensitive to sulphur dioxide in the air. Where the air quality is poor, at best they only manage to grow a few millimetres and may not survive at all. Long beards are therefore an indicator of clean air.
Bracken is a type of fern. Perhaps the easiest way to spot mature bracken plants is by their sturdy stem which acts a bit like the trunk of a tree with leaves going out horizontally from this. Other ferns leaves tend to grow directly out of the ground. Earlier in the year, bracken is recognisable by the fronds emerging from the ground singly rather than grouped in tufts.
Conifers evolved around 300 million years ago, a long time before the first dinosaurs. For nearly 200 million years, conifers were the dominant form of trees and it wasn't until around 65 million years ago that broadleaf trees were out-competing conifers in many habitats.
Heronford was formerly called Newton. The earliest records of the settlement are from 1748. The name is Old English for "new farm" - equivalent to Trenoweth in Cornish.
The footbridge is thought to date from the early 19th Century.
Clapper bridges are an ancient form of bridge built out of stone slabs spanning piers in the river. Most were built during mediaeval times, often beside a ford where horses and carts would cross. There is disagreement over the origin of the word "clapper". One candidate is an Anglo-Saxon word cleaca meaning "a bridge of stepping stones". Another is a mediaeval Latin word clapus which is is thought to have originated in Celtic Western Europe and to mean "pile of stones".
The ruins beside the junction near Trevague are the remains of Trevague Mill. This was a corn mill that is known to have been in use from at least 1856 and was recorded as still extant in 1907. Water was transported along quite a long leat from a weir near the bridge over the lane at Tregrenna.
Where tracks met in a T-junction, this presented a challenge for horses and carts as these didn't have a tight turning circle. The triangular islands often visible on junctions of tracks and small lanes today were formed by the cartwheels cutting the corners of the junction. Eventually these cut corners were formalised as surfaced tracks with a grassy triangular island in the centre.
The manor of Trevague is recorded in the Domesday survey of 1086 which states it was held by Alwin (which sounds like a Celtic name) in 1066 but had been transferred to (the Norman landowner) Nigel by 1086. The manor contained land for 6 ploughs, 1 acre of woodland, and pasture. The settlement consisted of 8 villagers and 18 smallholders. There is also a record of a chapel at Trevague from the 15th Century.
The Ramblers Association and National Farmers Union suggest some "dos and don'ts" for walkers which we've collated with some info from the local Countryside Access Team.
Do
Don't
The reason that you can cut yourself on a blade of grass is that grass leaves contain minute particles of silica (glass). As well as deterring some animals from grazing, these particles also help to give the stems more rigidity.
The hill to the left is Fox Tor that you climbed at the start of the walk. It is the 18th tallest hill in Cornwall at 323 metres above sea level.
Blackthorn and hawthorn trees both grow in similar places but in each season there are different ways to tell them apart.
In spring, blackthorn is one of the first trees to flower. The white blossom appears before the leaves in April. In warm weather, the leaves may quickly catch up and this is when it can get mistaken for hawthorn, which produces leaves before flowers. However, there are a few other ways to distinguish the flowers: blackthorn pollen is orange whereas hawthorn is pink, fading to black. Hawthorn petals overlap each other whereas blackthorn is more "gappy".
In summer, the leaf shape can be used to tell them apart. Blackthorn leaves are a classic leaf shape with slightly serrated edges. Hawthorn leaves have deep notches dividing the leaf into several lobes a bit like oak.
In autumn, pretty much all hawthorn trees have small red berries, even the windswept specimens on the coast. Blackthorn trees may have purple sloes, but not all the trees fruit each year. Some years seem to result in a lot more sloes than others.
Hawthorn trees are often a little bigger than blackthorn, especially in harsh environments such as on the coast. Blackthorn tends to form thickets whereas hawthorn are typically distinct trees. Hawthorn bark is usually shiny whereas blackthorn is dull. The thorns on hawthorn tend to be shorter (less then 2cm) and point slightly forwards on the stem. Blackthorn has longer spikes that stick out at right angles.
To discourage herbivores from eating them, nettles leaves have tiny spikes which inject a stinging venom. The myth that nettle stings are caused by acid is one that needs debunking as the formic acid in nettle venom is at a concentration that is too low to cause a sting. It is actually a combination of neurotransmitters (histamine, serotonin and acetylcholine) in the venom which causes skin irritation. The most effective relief is likely to be from an antihistamine cream but only if applied quickly enough.
The first record of the settlement of Tregrenna is from the Domesday survey of 1086 when it was spelt Tregrenou. Other than "Tre" signifying an early mediaeval farmstead, the origin of the name is unknown.
The River Lynher (pronounced "liner", as in ocean) is just over 20 miles long, rising on Bodmin Moor and joining the Tamar in its estuary near Saltash. The name dates back to mediaeval times, being recorded as "Lyner" in 1318. It is also known as the St Germans River at the point where it widens into a broad, tidal channel, close to its mouth.
During Victorian times, the river was polluted by copper mining waste and during the late 20th century, runoff from intensive dairy farming and an increase in arable farming were found to be affecting water quality and silting the gravel beds needed by spawning salmon. In the early 21st century, a number of these issues were addressed under the Cornwall Rivers Project.
The river is now a haven for wildlife with several stretches being designated as Sites of Special Scientific interest (SSSIs). The river's resident species include otters, brown trout and Atlantic salmon which breed in its major tributary, the Tiddy.
The little yellow flowers with four petals all over the moor in July are tormentil (Potentilla erecta). Its common names include Bloodroot and Flesh and Blood because roots yield a red dye which is still used as an ingredient for artists' colours (tormentil red). The roots also have very a high tannin content and have even been used to tan leather. Extracts from the plant have been widely used in folk medicine and is it still used as a remedy for diarrhoea and as a lotion for skin sores.
Himalayan Balsam is a tall plant with very pretty pink flowers that can often be seen lining footpaths in the summer and early autumn. It was introduced as an ornamental species in 1839 and unfortunately the plant is now a major ecological problem. It can grow from a seed to 9ft high in a few months, forming dense thickets and wiping out other plant species. It is also extremely invasive as the seed pods open explosively, launching around 800 seeds per plant up to 7 metres and the seeds are also adapted to travel by water. It is a nuisance on riverbanks as its roots are shallow and allow the sediment to become easily eroded into the river. It can be identified by its bright pink flowers and it has a characteristic sweet smell.
Some of the Public Rights of Way originating from mediaeval times appear as sunken paths, also known as holloways from the Old English hola weg, a sunken road. There are different reasons for the lane being lower than the surrounding land. In some cases it was simply erosion caused by horses, carts and rainwater over hundreds of years. There are also examples where ditches formed between banks as a boundary between estates and then later adopted as a convenient location for travel or droving animals.
Sheep were one of the first animals to be domesticated by humans. Domestication is thought to have started roughly around 12,000 years ago in Mesopotamia. The first sheep weren't woolly and were used for meat, milk and their (woolless) hides which were sometimes tanned to make leather. Woolly sheep were bred about 4,000 years later in Iran.
Once domesticated sheep had become woolly, individuals with white fleeces were selected for breeding as this was the easiest colour to dye. This was made easier by the genes giving rise to a white fleece being dominant. The recessive genes still do sometimes come together to produce a black lamb in an otherwise white flock. The expression "black sheep of the family" arises from this and its negative connotation was based on the economic undesirability of their fleeces.
Sheep are now farmed pretty much solely for their meat rather than their wool. The reason that you may see scruffy sheep with wool falling off is that due to cheap synthetic (plastic) fibres, demand for wool declined through the late 20th and early 21st centuries resulting in many sheep not being shorn due to the wool price being lower than the cost of the labour to remove it.
Meat sold as lamb comes from sheep of around 1 year of age. Mutton is from a sheep typically of around 2-3 years of age and is much darker red in colour. Due to more muscle and fat, the flavour of mutton is stronger and the meat is tougher so it typically slow-cooked.
As well as being environmentally-friendly, wool fibre has a number of technical properties that synthetic fibres lack including fire-resistance and the ability to absorb and release moisture. Some novel high-tech uses are now being found for it including biodegradable ground cover matting to control soil erosion. As concerns grow over the effects of plastics in the environment and micro plastics turning up in all kinds of unwanted places (such as 80% of the human blood samples tested in a study), this may also lead to a renaissance in natural fibres including wool. It may therefore not be too long before demand increases and fields are once again full of neatly-shorn sheep.
At short range, ewes and lambs are able to recognise each other by smell. At longer distances, they can recognise each other visually. Where this is not possible, they are able to recognise each other solely though their calls. Sheep can identify a unique signature for each individual based on the pitch and timbre of the bleat.
Due to their flocking behaviour, sheep have gained a reputation for not being intelligent but actually this is more about being nervous of being eaten. In a study, their intelligence was found to be on a par with cows: they can recognise human faces, learn a name given to them etc. This may even extend to problem-solving: in Cornwall we've seen them escape into a neighbouring field by operating a kissing gate and in West Yorkshire there are reports of sheep that have worked out that they can cross a cattle grid by rolling on their backs with their feet in the air.
The words "lamb" and "sheep" are from Germanic languages via Old English. The word "mutton" came via Norman French from a Latin word multonem which itself is thought to have come from a Celtic word for ram. The Cornish word for a neutered male sheep - mols - is thought to be from the same origin.
If there are sheep in the field and you have a dog, make sure it's securely on its lead (sheep are prone to panic and injuring themselves even if a dog is just being inquisitive). If the sheep start bleating, this means they are scared and they are liable to panic.
If there are pregnant sheep in the field, be particularly sensitive as a scare can cause a miscarriage. If there are sheep in the field with lambs, avoid approaching them closely, making loud noises or walking between a lamb and its mother, as you may provoke the mother to defend her young.
Sheep may look cute but if provoked they can cause serious injury (hence the verb "to ram"). Generally, the best plan is to walk quietly along the hedges and they will move away or ignore you.
A mine at Treburland was worked initially as an open-cast mine for tin in ancient times. By Victorian times, underground mining was taking place for tin but also for titanium and manganese ores. Names for the mine (as well as simply Treburland Mine) included Wheal Annie, New Phoenix and a name clearly not designed to attract venture capitalists - Wheal Flop. Work continued into the early 20th Century and the mine was subsequently re-opened during each of the World Wars to produce titanium for weaponry.
It's quite easy to get confused as there are four unrelated prehistoric stone structures in Cornwall known by the name Nine Maidens:
The theme also extends onto Dartmoor with a Nine Maidens stone circle on Belstone Tor.
The association of standing stones with "maiden" (including the "Merry Maidens") may well stem from medn. Although the original Cornish word for stone was maen, in late Cornish this became medn. This is similar to pen becoming pedn in coastal place names in West Cornwall where Cornish was last spoken (names in East Cornwall were frozen earlier in time when Cornish stopped being spoken).
Rock balancing art is best avoided on Bodmin Moor as what looks to the untrained eye like a pile of rocks is very likely to be prehistoric remains, and often a grave or memorial which is best not desecrated. Even accidental vandalism of ancient monuments is an illegal act that could result in a criminal record and jail sentence.
Fortunately, Cornwall has a considerable supply of pebbly beaches where towering extravaganzas can be constructed without such risks.
In case you're wondering why it's often misty on Bodmin Moor, it's due to what meteorologists call orographic rainfall. As moisture-laden wind blows off the sea towards the moors, it is forced upwards by the hills, into the cooler air a little higher up in the atmosphere. This causes the water vapour gas in the air to condense into tiny droplets of liquid and the result is fog and drizzle.
Below are some tips we use ourselves when we need to cross marshy ground:
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