By: Blonde Two

All Hallows Eve 2012 saw the Two Blondes exploring the Bronze Age remains to the south of Merrivale.  Too much time at Foxtor Cafe enjoying the sofa, chat and coffee meant that we arrived rather later than planned on this windy and misty afternoon.

We used the two double stone rows as an attack point (a navigation term which means “something that is easy to find which you use to find something else nearby that is tricky to find”) and found a nearly hidden hut circle, stone circles, cairns, kistvaens (burial chambers) and the impressive menhir (standing stone).  All amazing to look at and capable of blowing your mind if you try to comprehend their age.

Time to be honest though, the Two Blondes like to appear rugged but we are definitely girls at heart.  I think it struck us both at the same time that we were alone at Halloween, on a darkening, misty moor surrounded by deathly relics.  If there was a place in the world where there were going to be ghosts around, that was certainly it.  We braved it out and didn’t discuss our fears but I have to admit to being relived when we headed back to the car and a bit nervy being left on my own when I couldn’t hold off doing a moorland wee any longer.

I can thoroughly recommend the Merrivale antiquities – they are near to the road and make for impressive viewing and interesting micro navigation.  But if you want to avoid the goosebumps and spine shivers, choose a sunny day in the middle of June when the only movement will be the breeze and the buzzing insects.