The Hurlers

The Hurlers is the name for an arrangement of three stone circles on the edge of Bodmin Moor, according to various sources, although only two of these are obvious to my untrained eye.

Legend has it that the stones are people who took the blasphemous decision to play the sport of hurling on a Sunday, incurring the curse of Saint Cleer (after whom one the nearby villages is named) and freezing them to the spot.

It seems as though the alignment through the centre of the circles was important to whoever built them – the central axis lines up with a funeral cairn (Rillaton Barrow) which is visible on the sky line. There are other stones and cairns in the area, at right angles to this axis.  At one time, it is thought, there was a processional path that led through the stones, along a crystal quartz “floor”. 

The local area is rich in atmospheric landmarks. The huge television mast on Caradon Hill to the south is, admittedly, a slight eyesore. But ignoring that (or when it is lost in mist, as it often is) you can focus on other things.

There is a disused mine nearby, the large engine house providing an atmospheric photography subject.  The Tamar river valley is visible to the east, with Dartmoor rising up beyond it.

There is also a quarry carved into the side of one of the local hills, which was at one time home to a certain Daniel Gumb. It is said that he raised a family of 6 children here, in a home he built for himself out of granite slabs.

Looking at it now, it looks barely big enough for one person to find shelter in, but it clearly belonged at one time to someone with an interest in masonry, as carved into the roof slab you can see a Pythagorean triangle and square beneath the lichen.

 Within a stone’s throw (almost) of Mr Gumb’s former residence you can find the Cheesewring rock formation: a stack of granite slabs which – legend has it – were tossed there by a giant. They form a slightly improbable-looking pile which seems as though it might teeter over at any moment.

Nearby there are walls of a 6000-year old encampment, and we can suppose that the people who lived there also wondered at how the rocks came to look as they do.