Whatever the time of year I love the moors. Whether it is in the depths of winter when the air is sharp with cold, one of those days the wind tugs at you and takes your breath away or at the height of a bright blue-skied summers day. Then its a very different place, you can hear the heat coming from the stones and the grass cracks under your feet.
Watching the cloud shadows moving across those wide empty spaces, that is where I feel really at peace. But of course these are not really empty spaces and each time I visit I find another new reason to go back.
A few days ago it was neither mid winter or a clear summers day but I was with friends visiting a part of the moor that had until that day had completely passed me by.
The dark silhouette of Hawks tor, close to Blisland, was clearly visible on the horizon when we set out from the cars parked beside the rough farm track. The path isn’t clearly marked because this is a brand new right of way recently agreed upon by English Heritage and the resident farmer. (I have included a little map below to give you a rough idea of the route.) The reason for our walk, besides getting out on the moor, was to see the recently completed renovation of the Stripple-stones Stone Circle.
Cornwall has plenty of stone circles but this unique circle is one of just three in Cornwall standing as it does on a raised henge and until this year was in a very poor state of repair. A hedge was cutting through the monument (as the illustration from the 1970s shows) but more pressing was the damage 
being done by livestock.
Most of the stones had fallen, there were just four left standing and the whole site was in danger of disappearing into the landscape. But on the day we visited looking down from the top of Hawks Tor I was delighted to see the newly resurrected stones bright white against the landscape. It was something I had learnt last year when helping with the preservation of Leskernick stone circle, something that the builders of the circles must have prized – granite when it is fresh out the ground and free from weathering glows white and can be seen from a great distance.
These wonderful relics deserve protection. This circle was constructed around 3000BC and English Heritage have done a great job in bringing it back to life. There are now 11 upright stones some as much as 2.5m high, although some estimates say that the circle may have once consisted of as many as 28 standing stones! The hedge has been removed and the bank and ditch henge with a diameter of roughly 46m restored.
The stones in this circle are impressive and quite different from its nearest neighbour, the Trippet Stones. There the stones are chunky and squat, here they are mostly narrow, flat pieces of stone stretching up towards the sky like fingers.
This really is a special and atmospheric site. Get out there! It is well worth the short walk especially if you combine it with a visit to the Trippet stones which are close by.
Two things before I go. Any one have any ideas what the significance of these L shaped stones is? 
And here is the map that I promise to guide you there! Hope you can see the pink dotted line, it starts from the track leading to Hawks Tor Farm.
For more stories of the moor try: The Propped Stone of Leskernick Hill or Those Ruined Places: Westmoor or The Singular Mr Daniel Gumb & his house of rocks
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Oh I must try to visit this place. Looks so interesting. I find moorland a very lovely place to roam, I’m up on the Yorkshire moors most days with my dogs. L Shaped stones?? Not a clue but interested to know the answer if someone else can enlighten us 😊
How lovely. I would love to visit this someday. The moors are so beautiful.
Thank you x
That was awesome! Sadly I’ll probably never travel the world, so I have to get the world through stuff like this. Thank you so much!
Thank you very much! Glad you enjoyed it 🙂
Hi Lizzie…great photos – is it ok if I use one or two with the full credits to yourself please?
Cheers Roy
Of course Roy I have others too should you need them x
Thanks Lizzie – I’ll be in touch x
Do the L-shaped stones falnk the original entrance to the henge?
That was one idea that we discussed at the time. We also thought that the direction that they indicated might be significant too.
Yes it faces in the general direction of the Trippet Stones doesn’t it Lizzie and avoids the high part of the tor if you were walking from one to the other.
Now that the 7 further recumbent stones have been re-erected the henge is easily seen from the A30 when eastbound. Wonderful sight.
I did, of course, mean “flank”!
Do you offer walking tours around Cornwall? I wanted to attend the du Maurier festival in May and would love to meet you.
Hi there, how lovely! Which area were you thinking to visit? Do you have some specific places in mind?
I fell in love with Jamaica Inn, read it for the first time last year. Actually, I went on a du Maurier binge Spring 2018, but the book I loved the most was Jamaica Inn. And the Tatiana de Rosnay biography. I’ve been lapping up your pictures. You’re quite the traveler as well!
I see, well there are plenty of places in Cornwall that are connected to du Maurier as I am sure you know. Have you read
https://cornishbirdblog.com/2017/07/02/gribbin-head-daymark-open-for-a-birds-eye-view/
Where will you be staying in Cornwall?
Thank you for sharing to “Voices from the stones” . Great stuff you do. Martyn
Thanks for your piece on the Stripple stones – I will leave a link to your post for those who read mine! I walked through there yesterday as part of my own walking art project trigpointkernow – have a look at see my blog. L shaped granites – were these stones amongst the ones uprighted by EH and thus perhaps tastefully re-positioned with these shapes considered in their orientation? The L shape is also evident in one of the larger stones but still intact – weathering often erodes the stones along fault lines and mineral seams within the rock as Im sure you know…