153 - Bodmin Moor : Description

Physical and functional links to other National Character Areas

Located in central Cornwall, Bodmin Moor is surrounded by the Cornish Killas National Character Area (NCA). It is linked to the surrounding area principally as the source of the rivers Fowey, Tiddy, Lyhner, Inny and Camel which flow from the high moor forming deep gorges and cascades as they pass over the edge of the granite. Rainfall on the moor is also collected in Siblyback Lake, Crowdy and Colliford Lake reservoirs and used to supply drinking water to much of Cornwall and Plymouth.

Bodmin Moor is visible from many parts of Cornwall and its rugged, treeless form provides the backdrop to many typical Cornish views; in particular Brown Willy, Cornwall’s highest point, and Rough Tor.

Cornwall’s main transport links – the A30, A38 and A39 roads and the Penzance to London railway line – either cross the moor or skirt the periphery, meaning that the area is highly visible.

The entire area is underpinned and influenced by granite geology. The Bodmin Granite is one of a series of granite intrusions which are linked at depth as the Cornubian Batholith. This links the NCA with a chain of intrusions that are seen in the Isles of Scilly, West Penwith and Carnmenellis to the west and Dartmoor to the east. The granite defines the area, forming the tors, clitter slopes and the thin moorlands soils. It hosts mineral veins of copper and tin.

Links to the surrounding countryside are emphasised through the pattern of farmsteads and settlements connected to the moor by trackways, allowing the movement of grazing livestock to the moor in summer and back to the lower valley pastures in the winter.

The Bodmin Moor today

The granite uplands of Bodmin Moor are exposed; this is open, typically treeless moorland with extensive peat bogs and mires. The wild landscape is topped by granite tors and clitter slopes, where Neolithic and bronze-age ritual monuments and enclosures testify to the retreat of settlement from the moorlands after about 1000 bc. The wildness of the landscape is thrown into relief by small pockets of enclosed pasture. Shallow valleys, dominated by scrub woodland and bogs, in which abandoned prehistoric and medieval hamlets lie alongside modern ones, cut through the higher ground. The central part of the moor is lower, rolling and gentler in aspect. It is also less remote, being crossed by the main A30 road from Launceston to Bodmin.

The high tors of Brown Willy (the highest point in Cornwall), Rough Tor and the Cheesewring give way to shallow valleys. The high ground consists of damp grass moorland, blanket bog and purple moor grass. Much of the land is registered as common, and grazed by sheep, ponies and cattle. Modern enclosure is rare on the high moorland. Where it does occur it tends to be in the form of regimented wire fences, enclosed forestry plantations and occasional shelterbelts providing cover from the harsh weather. Many enclosures follow historical boundary features that have been used since the Bronze Age.

The Atlantic coastal climate and underpinning granite geology dictate land use. High rainfall and hard rock combine to give rise to thin and peatytopped soils, shallow, fast-flowing streams and wet grass heathland. A complex pattern of vegetation types provides a distinctive colour mosaic. This extends into the more intensive areas of grassland found on the lower slopes and close to the widely scattered farmsteads. Towards the outer edges of the moor are located small hamlets and villages, smaller commons and a contrasting landscape of enclosed fields, many dating from the medieval period, fringed by Cornish hedgebanks. Pasture now predominates, with some small areas of arable. This creates a more intimate landscape, reinforcing the transition between upland and lowland.

Bodmin links with the surrounding areas through five main rivers that rise in shallow bogs on the high moor. They flow into wooded valleys, for example at Golitha Falls – a National Nature Reserve (NNR) – and plunge off the moor flowing either directly to the sea or into the larger River Tamar.

Ancient woodlands can be found in the shelter of steep-sided valleys and are widespread in the south of the area. They support a wide variety of Atlantic lichens and important assemblages of bryophytes due to unpolluted air, a mild climate and high levels of rainfall and humidity.

Bodmin Moor has a rich biodiversity, recognised through the designation of 20 per cent of the moor as Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and SAC. It provides a winter feeding area for more than 10,000 golden plover, while the conifer woodland around Davidstow provides winter protection for a flock of nearly 1 million starlings. The starling roost and associated swirling massed murmurations of so many birds has become a tourist spectacle bringing people to the moor during the early winter months. Wet bogs support small populations of marsh fritillary butterfly and breeding waders including snipe. The mineral spoil heaps of the south-eastern moor also provide the last known location for Cornish path moss due to the heavy metal composition of the spoil heaps.

The high moor of Bodmin is a sparsely settled landscape where only a few lonely farmsteads occur huddled together in sheltered locations. In contrast, the moorland edge contains clusters of farmsteads and the nucleated settlements of St Breward, St Neot and St Cleer. Buildings are constructed from locally quarried granite walls and slate roofs and often include hanging slates to provide further protect from the elements.

Mining has played an important role in the formation of the landscape. Tin and copper mining began in the Bronze Age and intensified from the mid- 18th century. China clay and granite extraction also developed from this period and all industrial activities peaked in the mid-19th century. Many of the features associated with this mining heritage have been included within the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape World Heritage Site.

The remote and bleak nature of Bodmin Moor makes it an important location for outdoor pursuits, with many people enjoying walking and mountain biking across the area. This is complemented by the lakes and reservoirs, notably Colliford Lake, that provide opportunities for watersports such as sailing and windsurfing. Many areas of the moor are used for field studies by international educational establishments, in recognition of the special landscape.

The landscape through time

The Bodmin Granite that underpins Bodmin Moor is one of a series of intrusions stretching from the Isles of Scilly in the west to Dartmoor in the east. During the Carboniferous-Permian Variscan Orogeny, the mountainbuilding period from 320 to 280 million years ago, burial, compression, folding and the propagation of low-angle faults resulted in the formation of slates from the Devonian age, sandstones and siltstones and allowed the intrusion of granite. At the margins of the granite intrusion, the heat generated produced mineral veins principally of tin and copper, with some lead and silver. Today the granite forms a high plateau and boulder-strewn moorlands; it is widely used as a building material throughout the area.

In the geologically recent past, the ice sheets of the Quaternary Period, did not reach as far south as Cornwall, which instead experienced cold, dry, tundra-like conditions. Some of the moors are topped with granite tors and strewn with half-buried granite boulders, or clitter, which were produced by seasonal freezing and thawing. The naturally formed Cheesewring on the south-west corner of the moor has given its name to an internationally recognised geological category of tor. Deposits of granitic sand and gravel moved down the slopes and collected in gullies between the hills, resulting in a gently rounded topography.

The predominant settlement pattern is based around scattered farmsteads and small hamlets nestled into folds in the high moorland. This mostly results from medieval and later change; earlier settlement remains are largely confined to the moorlands.

Early settlers were involved in the clearance of trees from the moor. Flint scatters can be found across the area suggesting a transition from hunting to settled agriculture. Bronze-age settlers continued the domestication of the area, adding to the already abundant remains of Neolithic ritual and funerary monuments, including barrows, cairns and standing stones with notable concentrations in the Rough Tor and Stowes Pound areas. From around 1000 bc, a cooling climate and wetter conditions brought about the steady abandonment of the high moor.

During the late Iron Age and the Romano-British transition, hill forts and distinctive defended farmsteads and hamlets became limited to clusters around the edge of the moor. A period of slow re-colonisation of the moor started in the 11th century, following the original widely dispersed settlement patterns. Cultivation of the moorland resumed and continued through the medieval period, leaving a legacy of ancient abandoned field enclosures with a particularly good example of medieval field systems and cultivation ridges on Garrow Tor. Extensive areas of irregular fields with scattered hamlets and farmsteads represent the range of ages of enclosure, the older settlements being characterised by the place name element tre. They contrast with the 18th- and 19th-century enclosures with rectilinear boundaries associated with larger farmsteads.

Mining has played an important role in the formation of the landscape. Tin and copper mining began in the Bronze Age and intensified from the mid- 18th century. The majority of valley bottoms display evidence of tin streaming (extracting tin where it has accumulated in streams and alluvial deposits). China clay and granite extraction also developed from this period and all industrial activities peaked in the mid-19th century.

The expansion of mining and associated industrial activities, especially within the Caradon area, resulted in the growth and extension of earlier settlements, with the addition of sturdy, terraced miners’ cottages on the unimproved moorland abutting towns and villages. The mining economy remained dependent on and combined with versatile and productive agricultural activity – particularly miner-farmer smallholdings. The significant impact of the area’s importance for mineral extraction can be seen in the industrialised mining and quarrying areas of Caradon, for example Houseman’s Shaft at the South Phoenix mine. This has now been recognised through the designation in 2006 of the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape World Heritage Site by UNESCO particularly for its important role in the development of the copper and tin mining industries.

Cattle rearing has long formed a major element of the area’s agricultural economy. This has led to the intensification of grass production with any suitable areas being used to provide winter fodder crops. While cattle are still a component of Bodmin Moor, the area is now dominated by sheep grazing with an average of 74,000 sheep being grazed within the NCA. Ponies have historically and culturally played a significant part in the development and management of the moor and many ponies still graze on the moor.

Bodmin has benefited from a number of agricultural initiatives which provided funding to encourage farmers to protect the most important wildlife, heritage and landscape features. These have evolved over time and have been replaced by Environmental Stewardship. Recent changes in the structure of agricultural payments have had an impact on the way the moor is used, which in turn affects the vegetation of the moor and has lead to the neglect of many boundary features. These changes can also been seen in the adjoining areas with moves to intensive strip dairy farming and on-site bale storage.

The area around Davidstow was developed as a military airfield in 1941 and used for active service until the end of the Second World War. Since then the infrastructure has degraded but this use is still obvious in the vicinity. Slightly later, in the 1950s, the Davidstow cheese factory was developed; as the factory has expanded, the impact of the complex has increased, creating a prominent feature in the landscape.

Following the Second World War a number of large blocks of conifer were planted on the north and south moors. These have developed over time, in stark contrast to the surrounding open moorland, and provide important roosting habitats for birds and shelter for moorland mammals.

In the 20th century, three reservoirs were constructed on the moor: Colliford Lake, Siblyback Lake and Crowdy Reservoir. They supply drinking water to much of Cornwall and Plymouth.

The dramatic scenery has attracted many writers, poets and artists who have used the landscape to develop and set stories, myths and legends. The best known of these is Daphne du Maurier who used a hostelry in the centre of the moor as the setting for her book ‘Jamaica Inn’.

This NCA includes the Bodmin Moor section of the Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty – one of 12 areas of Cornwall designated in 1959 for their special scenic beauty and qualities. More recently the area has attracted a number of funding initiatives, including the Bodmin Moor Project and the more recent Bodmin Moor Livestock Initiative, which provides funding to encourage farmers to protect the most important wildlife, heritage and landscape features. Twelve areas of the moorland have been locally identified as Premier Archaeological Landscapes, demonstrating their excellent survival as coherent archaeological landscapes.

In recent years the landscape of Bodmin Moor has been changed by the dualling of the A30 for three-quarters of its journey across the moor. This has made the area much more accessible for recreation including walking, cycling and horse riding. The landscape looking out from Bodmin Moor has altered over the last 20 years with the addition of a number of renewable energy developments, principally wind farms, single wind turbines and, more recently, solar farms.