Bodmin Moor. This mystical place was formed like the other two great Moors of the West Country Dartmoor and Exmoor after the last of the Great Ice Ages. Due to it's exposed position, prevelant wind, and climate change, over the centuries, huge granite outcrops, called Tors' have been uncovered. This remote, desolate moor did not deter man however For.ten thousand years ago Bodmin Moor was completely different to today. It was wooded, and temperate, and Mesolithic hunter-gatherers' roamed at their will . By the Neolithic era, from about 4,500, to 2,300 BC, people were claiming the terrain for their own. And by clearing the trees in order to settle and farm the landscape. It was first farmed over 4,000 years ago during the Bronze Age. Situated in the center of Cornwall the Moor is an exceedingly rich and important historic landscape. And as one would expected  numerous  prehistoric remains have been uncovered. And there are numerous myths and legends are associated with the Moor. During the Bronze Age, the climate was a lot warmer and the soil more fertile than to-day. On the slopes of Rough Tor can be found hundreds of thatched stone round houses. These are the remains of the Bronze Age settlements and evidence of them burying their dead in barrows, and cairns that can still be seen today. The Moor was under cultivation in both prehistoric, and medieval times. And to-day we can find evidence of the legacy of this by-gone time in the ancient, field enclosures which serve as a reminder of the fortitude of primitive man who managed to eke out an existence in such a hostile environment. All over Bodmin Moor there is a high concentration of prehistoric monuments of interest.

Bodmin Moor is in the Countryside Stewardship Schemes, which works alongside other environmental management agreements that are in place to protect the moorland vegetation, wildlife, and character of places of natural beauty all over the country. All over the moor tin stream works are found, These originated when the valley bottoms were dug for extracting tin gravels. For in the 19th century tin and copper mining became a powerful industry, and was mined along with the granite, and china clay on Bodmin moor. Also quarrying  made a huge impact on the Moor it's communities and the environment. This activity went a long way to forming the moor we know to-day .Bodmin Moor, with its extensive areas of peat bog and clear feeder streams, is the source of many of the countys principal rivers. The Fowey, Camel, and De Lank, as well as the Ottery, Inny, and Lynher which flow into the Tamar all rise on Bodmin Moor. The Camel system is designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). The DeLank River is likely to receive further European recognition, by being added to the Nature 2000 list. The moor also has many natural features which include the highest point in Cornwall, the amusingly named Brown Willy which reaches 420 meters.
Visitors should be wary because of the lack of fences of the Moor, ponies, cattle, and sheep graze freely on open stretches of the Moor, so please take care when driving on unfenced roads and lanes as it's likely you could encounter a group of them meandering down the middle of the road. The Moor also had a profusion of wildlife. And birds are very evident on Bodmin Moor with Snipe,Wheater Skylark, Reed Bunting ,Curlew, Grasshopper ,Warbler, and Redstart to name a few

Even to-day despite the periodic incursions of man the Moor is very much the same as when it was first created, It;s very nature has deterred wholesale human inhabitation , true the ruins of old farmhouses can be found scattered across the moor evidence of people trying to eke out a living in a very inhospitable environment, All over the moor are giant standing stones, Bronze Age settlements. All proof of mans continual fragile effort to tame Bodmin Moor. All of the Towns, Villages and Hamlets can be found on the outer ring of the Moor, where life is a little easier. Farmers and livestock owners do graze their animals on the moor however. There are many legends, and myths, associated with the moor. Dozmary Pool is a natural moorland lake situated to the south of Bolventor on Bodmin Moor. Once it was home of ancient man, who has left remnants of his presence in the shape of hut circles and other prehistoric remains. Local folk long believed that the strange, mysterious Pool was bottomless and had a whirlpool in the center. It is hardly surprising, then, that it has become an integral part of two major Cornish legends "the first one is that a evil disciple of the devil, a man called John Tregagle was doomed to bail out for all eternity the water from the lake using a limpet shell that was holed, this was his penance for his many crimes, the second legmen is that Dozmary Pool is the actual lake where the loyal lieutenant Sir Bedivere on the orders of the dying King Arthur hurled exalibur. A hand and arm rose up from the surface of the lake, clad in the white samite, caught the sword and drew it underneath.

Over the years there has been several reports of large animals loose on the moor, but no evidence till in 1995, a young boy walking along the bank of the Fowley River found the scull of a large animal. The skull was dispatched to the Natural History Museum in London, where it was examined by one of the Museums mammal specialists, Daphne Morris who compared the skull to thousands of similar sculls the Museum holds. Daphne stated "I could tell that this was the skull of a large cat by the number, position and type of teeth. Characteristically cats have three upper cheek teeth visible from side view, whereas dogs, for example, have more". As inconclusive as Daphnes findings were, this was it led to the Government of the day ordering an investigation  (the UK Government ordered the compiling of report in which zoologists concluded that there was no evidence to show that big cats existed on the moor.) Today however we still get reports of a large cat lor cats loose on the Moor?

Jamaica Inn, the inn made famous by Daphne Du Maurier, in her novel of the same name was a tale of derring-do skulldugery, and smuggling in the late 18th century. Jamaica Inn was built in 1750, and was a coaching inn, a bit like our modern day Travel Lodge. Weary travelers using the turnpike between Launceston, and Bodmin would stay at the Inn.  After having crossed the wild and treacherous moor. Some of the travelers, were without doubt  smugglers, and used the remoteness of the Inn to hide away the contraband that had been smuggled ashore from either France, or the Channel Islands. It is estimated that because of the high taxes on these commodities, that half of the brandy, and a quarter of all tea sold in in the UK was contraband landed along the Cornish and Devon coasts. Shades of the drink and tobacco smugglers of the late 80s, springs to mind. Remote and isolated Jamaica Inn was in the prefect location and was an excellent resting place for both travelers, and smuggler's on their way to the neighboring county of Devon or even as far afield as London. It is also thought that the Inns unusual name was derived because it did a considerable trade in smuggled Jamaican rum!
In 1778 the Inn was extensively extended to include a coach house, stables and a tack room, creating the L-shaped main part of the building, and thus creating the Inn we know today. Jamaica Inn also has one of the finest and most extensive collections of smuggling artifacts in the UK You can find out more about this historic Inn on the link on right of screen

If you are visiting  the area then the town of Liskeard,  is a suggested place to base one's-self, situated at the head of the Looe Valley, it has long been an important market center. Liskeard was also vital to the tin mining industry until it's demise in the 18th and 19th centuries. After the collapse of the mining industry many Cornish people migrated to various parts of the world in search of a better life. This emigration of  the Cornish miners was called the Cornish diaspora. Unemployment, and low wages, coupled with the opportunity afforded for skilled experienced miners to find a better life abroad. The decline in the tin and copper mining industries in Cornwall has led to Cornwall having the unenvial position as the Country's poorest region. And one that is now wholly dependant on the tourist industry. Yes in a perverse way Cornwalls history and beauty has been it's saving grace.

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