Bodmin Moor is a halfway stop between the wonders of Land's End and Dartmoor, but in no way is it lesser in its rich prehistory than either one. It might not contain the massive stone rows and avenues of Dartmoor, nor quite the diversity of Land's End, but it does have some excellent monuments that should be high up on anybody's list of sites to see when in the southwest of England.
My first stop was Duloe stone circle (SX 236 583). This small stone circle is constructed using only solid quartzite stones (see fig. 1), which when caught in full sunlight shine brightly against their dark green hedgerow backdrop.
There are seven stones, six of which are still standing. The shortest is just 50cm tall and the is largest over 2m. The beauty of this site is somewhat imposed upon by the close proximity of the village and modern field boundaries, but the total whiteness of the stones makes it a very special place indeed, especially (if like me) you have a thing for big quartz.
Access from the village of Duloe is fairly easy via a narrow, signposted lane. Parking is more tricky with the best place probably being by the cemetery just up the road.
A short journey up some tortuously narrow and windy roads takes you to one of the truly magical structures of the megalithic world: Trethevy Quoit (SX 259 688) (see fig. 2). Quoit is a word used in the southwest of England as a term for a dolmen and occasionally a standing stone.
This monument is of a classic portal tomb construction. The portal stones are over 3.5m tall and the capstone is pitched at a very perilous looking angle (see fig. 3). The rear stone of the chamber has, unfortunately, been pushed inwards, but this is the only blemish and can be easily ignored. There are some traces of the cairn that once covered the chamber.
There are two very special features here. The first is a hole drilled through the front edge of the capstone in front of the portal stones and doorstone. The second is a small doorway in the base of the doorstone that would have allowed access to the chamber if the backstone hadn't collapsed inside.
