|
thesweetcheat wrote: Was at Tregeseal a week or so ago. Haven't had chance to compare new pics with previous years to look for "leans". The whole area around the circle is now covered in cowpats. We didn't get up to the holed stones this time, but I have to say that the stones alleged to have been broken by the cows were previous breaks that had been cemented back together quite crudely.
The EH intervention got a big write-up in the Cornishman (the local paper) too, which was good to see.
Craig Weatherhill and Ian Cooke* have been warning about this ever since the "Heathland Project" was introduced, shame it's taken video evidence being posted on youtube to make anyone pay attention. Sadly Natural England appear to be very obdurate and will not compromise their scheme.
We visited a number of sites that CASPN take responsibility for keeping clear (Mulfra courtyard houses for example), which highlight a much better way of protecting the monuments from vegetation. I noted that a small area of heather and gorse just north of Treen Common enclosure has been burnt back as well, which has always provided another option to grazing.
*Craig and Ian have written extremely informative books about the monuments of West Penwith, which remain by far the most useful guides for the area.
Following this story has been a bit difficult especially as I don't know the area, the only information coming from the Save Penwith group. But Craig Wetherhill and Ian Cooke seem to have been pursuing the story with fervour.
Enclosure of the moors is to me a first step towards permanent enclosure of otherwise free access areas and should definitely not be allowed.
Those cows who gave me such grief ;) are not really remotely suitable for such spaces, the English longhorn is a rare breed I know, but association of large lumbering creatures around small circles is a nonsense. It seems they only go on in summer, so at least they don't 'poach' the ground.
Seems to me Natural England really did'nt go into other options for getting rid of, not sure what, probably gorse and heather though, perhaps sheep are a better answer....
CASPN I think have monthly tidying up parties of the cairns, have a link somewhere on it and they definitely do a good job in clearing vegetation.
Gorse and heather do tend to cover the 'wild places', North Yorkshire moors often presents a miserable brown face of heather, with a few sheep keeping the trackways open and yet the accidental burning a few years ago brought to light more rockart round Fylingsdale., and presumably more settlements and prehistoric stones lie hidden if the heather was burnt off.
http://www.ansi.okstate.edu/breeds/cattle/englishlonghorn/index.htm
|
