Run-off streams down the lane leading to isolated farmsteads and moorland above the Lynher Valley. Thick moss and pennyworts soak up wetness on boundary walls, and polypody ferns thrive on dripping branches of the overhanging trees. Uphill, little fields adjoining the open moor are exposed to yet another blast of heavy rain; bedraggled sheep drift towards the shelter of hedge-banks and, to the south, King Arthur’s Bed, Trewortha, Hawk’s and Kilmar tors disappear in cloud.

As the rain eases, rainbows brighten and fade against the dark sky; a delivery van heads for Bastreet waterworks and a lone rider leads a second horse along this unfenced way beside the ridge.

Before the widespread use of quarries this common land was worked for its moorstone of partially submerged boulders and surface clitter of granite. Marks of cutting on the edges of split rock are softened and disguised by turf, moss, lichen and rushy pools. Perhaps this hillside was the source of building stone for the parish’s church of St Torney, sited lower down, nearly three miles away, beyond the park-like landscape of Trebartha estate. Ashlar blocks of granite constitute the tall bell tower, the north and south aisles, and the spacious interior is constructed around lofty arches and slim pillars, all carved from granite in the 15th century.

Up on the hill, above the old cross set up by the Rodd family to commemorate a woman killed in a hunting accident, a motley herd of 20 or so ponies graze and shelter among gorse bushes. Attention from animal charities, subsequent round-ups, health checks and tagging, in collaboration with the commoners’ council, has already helped to improve the welfare of these semi-feral animals, reduced careless abandonment and illegal grazing on the sparse upland keep of East Moor.

This drab and squelchy expanse of rough grazing is scattered with the prehistoric remains of stone circle, mounds, reaves (straight boundaries), cairns and tumuli. Water rushes from Redmoor Marsh and patches of blue sky reflect in waterlogged ruts and hoof prints. Beyond is the quarried top of Fox Tor and, in the far distance, Brown Willy catches more rain.



