Hey Blog! Carrying on from the last post, I will take up the story where I left off…
In Boscastle, the YHA building was right next to a Museum of Witchcraft – reputedly one of the best in the world. As we were staying there and it had such a good reputation – well, it would be rude not to consider! In the end we decided to visit.
It was very good. To any visitors, I would say if you’re even remotely interested in anything connected, it’s well worth a visit; both from magical, historical, spiritual, and even just “because it’s a museum” point of view, though you may want to skip certain bits, depending on what you think is too far. However, these bits are very few. It may surprise you to know witchcraft is still going on, just in a modern-day form. However, I’m going with the old stuff, to be honest.
In the museum we learnt that there were some rock carvings in a valley nearby. These enigmatic marks were in a labyrinth design, the same as a carving on the continent. As I’m interested in rock art and prehistory stuff, we decided they were well worth going to look. We eventually found them right next to a mill halfway up (or halfway down) the valley. They were certainly intriguing, and we later recognised the same design right across Cornwall, from Boscastle to Eden Project (my next instalment) to Land’s End peninsular.
Going on to Friday, unfortunately we had to leave Boscastle, so we spent the day racing around finding standing stones and interesting carvings on them. Here are the highlights:
Hurlers stone circles – the three circles in a row is unique.
A “Quoit”. In other parts of the UK they are known as ‘dolmens’ and are basically several big stones supporting an even bigger one, called a capstone. This capstone is usually directly above where it was found in the ground, which makes sense, as who would want to transport a multi-tonne stone for any distance! They would have been covered with earth, possibly with the capstone showing.
Restormel Castle! This castle, run by English Heritage, is a very fine example of a shell keep, a castle design very simple, very beautiful, and very effective in battle. It consists of an old motte-and-bailey where you build a circular stone curtain wall around the outside of the motte, then build the buildings needed like kitchen, great hall, chapel, storehouse, and bedrooms on the wall inside. The circular design means a wide firing angle, and the size means you could house the entire population of the bailey and surrounding villages in case of attack. This particular specimen shows very good preservation and is a must-see for history enthusiasts visiting the area.
The story will continue…