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 Bodmin Moor is a
beautiful, wild
landscape of open hills and rugged tors, with villages and farms in the
lower valleys. It is the largest of Cornwall's
granite uplands, an area rich in history, archaeology and important
conservation sites.
Bodmin Moor has national and international
recognition and conservation designations:
Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, of
Great Landscape
 Value, of Great Historic Value, and part
of
the Cornwall
Mining World Heritage site. Most of the
moor
is a Site of Special Scientific Interest
(SSSI); there are nature reserves and areas that are
protected for over-wintering birds.
Around the fringe of the moor are
farmsteads, hamlets, villages with historic churches and
pleasant pubs. The older buildings are characteristically built
in local stone, often with granite quoins in the walls and
granite lintels over doors and windows, with roofs
of local slate from north Cornwall slate quarries.
 Granite
from the moor has been used in buildings for centuries. Now
just a few granite quarries are in
operation but all over the moor is weathered evidence of the
importance of granite. Not only can you find the granite
splitting pits and quarry works, but also partly 'dressed'
granites that have been worked on by a stone mason then
discarded, as seen in this photograph of an unfinished mill
stone.
Tin stream works are found across
the moor, where valley bottoms were dug for extracting tin
gravels. In the 19th century the tin and copper mining became a
powerful industry, and along with the granite and china clay
quarrying this made a huge impact on
the communities and environment.
Bodmin Moor has many prehistoric sites
where there are the remains of Neolithic cairns, stone
circles and stone rows from more than 6000 years ago.
We can walk through the fields systems and enclosures of Bronze Age
settlements with remains of the clusters of roundhouses; many of these
settlements are relatively undisturbed. The evidence of
Iron Age enclosures can be clearly seen at the moorland sites such as
the impressive ramparts on Stowe's Hill.
 The
medieval manors and farmsteads created a pattern of enclosures and
settlements that are still part of our landscape today. Farms
on remote hills have become abandoned over the centuries and the remains
of the farmhouses and barns can be found across the moor. Ancient paths and lanes lead from the
hills to surrounding valleys, and many present-day farms are on sites
which were occupied long before the Norman Conquest.
Cornwall
AONB
 Bodmin Moor is part of Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty which
celebrates it's 50th anniversary this year, 2009.
Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty,
along with National Parks, are considered to be the most special
landscapes in the country and belong to an international family of
protected areas.
There are 12 areas in the Cornwall AONB
and you can see a map of these on the AONB website.
www.cornwall-aonb.gov.uk
 The
moor itself is a relatively small upland
area which is
mainly peaceful and unspoilt.
When you visit
please support our local businesses and respect this special
place.
We hope you will enjoy the moor...
and leave only footprints, take only memories.
See our pages:
places to
visit ,
walking and
snippets of history |
