By: Blonde Two
There can’t be many Dartmoor walkers who haven’t taken a trip up to Bellever Tor. It’s distinctive shape allows it to stand out from the nearby Bellever Forest and there are easy paths up from a variety of directions. On a clear day, I can see Bellever from home and that is a good 45 minute drive away.
The Bellever area, though, offers much more than just a brisk trot (trotting is not compulsory) up a hill. To visit Bellever is to take a trip back in time. Tin mines, cairns, hut circles, a leat, newtakes and the eighth tallest menhir (standing stone) on the moor – Bellever has it all.
Blonde One and I have had many walks with many different groups of youngsters around the Bellever area. We have been assessed on our navigation, got (a little bit) lost in the dark, told jokes (on Laughter Tor of course) and dealt with a rock wedged foot (all was fine in the end). But for some odd reason, until Friday, I had never been to pay my respects to the Loughtor Man.
Mr Loughtor is worth visiting. Originally standing at the end of a double stone row (much of the stone in the area has been moved around over the centuries) he is a proud eight foot seven inches tall. It is difficult to visit a menhir without wanting to touch it, I wonder how many people have done exactly the same thing.
One thing you ladies might like to note is that there are no Dartmoor menhirs named after the fairer sex. Three are called “man”, “Beardown”, “Loughtor” and “Harbourne” and I am certain that “Drizzlecombe” refers to the rain rather than to a weeping woman. We could speculate as to the reason for this but, let’s be honest, I don’t imagine it was a girl who put them there in the first place.
Reference and thanks:
Legendary Dartmoor – http://www.legendarydartmoor.co.uk
I never knew that that was the name of that standing stone.
I remember the foot wedging incident! I think this was also the same time that a trainer was lost in a bog and there were lots of people “on their way to the Olympics”!!!!!
Happy memories!!
X
It was, well done, an excellent memory. All of us dispersed to different places now 🙁
Those Olympic people, I have an answer to the mystery … I may choose to tell!
Hi Ladies,
In defence of the male gender can I point out that the word ‘man’ is a corruption of the old early English word ‘maen’ meaning stone. On the other hand what about all the mines that are named after females; Wheal Ann, Betsy, Caroline, Dorothy, Eleanor, Emily, Emma, Hazel, Katherine, Mary Emma, Rose, Ruth and possibly Virgin. Could this be that compared to menhirs the mines were much more valuable hence the female names? How about that for some creeping 🙂
That is most excellent creeping and thanks as always for the wealth of information on your website. I would still rather be a magnificent standing stone than a mine full of smelly water though!
I needed to know whether the sporty job was a hairdresser’s car. Didn’t think it would be but the price of peace is, as you well know, eternal vigilance. Double-clicked on pic but it didn’t “grow”, Am still in the dark and my eyesight isn’t up to much these days. Dear Aunt Blonde, can you help?
The “sporty number” has never been near a hairdresser although it does have a mohair hood. It is a Mazda Eunos Roadster 1.8 Mk 1 and really is good fun to drive across Dartmoor (even for a Blonde who doesn’t really like driving!) Excellent road holding and exciting in the wet.