Hi, been away from a proper internet connexion (and a proper home) for a while. During my itinerant three summer months (re)visiting ancient sites throughout the whole of the West Country I felt extremely attracted by ALL of the tors in Kernow, neglecting the sites themselves, climbing one after another, thereby delaying other plans. Not that places like Merrivale and its amazing mixture of features (and rustling brook!) or freak buggers like only-observable-through-binoculars (from windy Nun's Cross, at the end of a road) Down Tor are not within the list of 'most inspiring experiences', but there's just something about the tors that MUST have inspired that whole late-megalithic wholly barbarian culture populated by ghosts and spirits of the moor.
Where-ever u are on the moors there appears to be the everpresent Tor. Roughtor, for instance, is visible (though distant) from most circles in the area, like Shannon circle, or a beautiful mountain god (name forgotten, no energy to check OS maps) rules over the mystery of Boskawen Un, the Un, the One, just as you get to the end of a long road past the chimney thang (and NOT via Men an tol).
Now, within the confines of most of these tors there are what would seem - in other parts of Europe - to be rock-cut tombs (?) , but my impression of these places is of pretty neat shelters designed for their use as shamanistic oracles. One tends to think of those old armenian hags that STILL in 1991 performed as shamans in the middle of the Caucasian desert, confined to a tiny space, half covered, their eyes blinking in the darkness.
There is a possibility that the Tors where more than just a 'natural sacred space', but a holy gorsedd. After all, the one to the west of Roughtor is, surprisingly (and contrary to the megalithic trend of 'leaving the natural temples' to themselves), surrounded by a huge cairn, amazing as an oddity in the whole of Kern-all. Still today, modern folks are attracted uphill and en masse to wonderful fairy-like places like Hound Tor.
What possibly made me smile with glee the most was to notice the cupmarks at the top of the Cheesewring. They just can't possibly have been unnoticed so far. It's just like those families that keep the roof of their bedroom covered in glowstars. Another logan stone and another gorsedd, an abode of the gods, where the shaman went for advice and vision every once in a while, weather permitting.
Great to see the Modern Antiquarian website has become so...erm, great to behold. Loads to catch up on in there methinks.
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