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| Experiencing ancient sites of mystery was the focus of our trip.
Shirley crawls through the healing men-an-tol, center of a stone circle in west Penwith, the far west part of Cornwall. |
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In recent centuries, people have developed a tradition of hanging clouties (strips of cloth) near wells, in token of prayers, especially for healing. Shirley hung one for our friend Pat at Sancreed well, and Susan hung one for Shirley at Madron. (Madron well is pictured on the May Day page.)
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Lanyon Quoit |
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| Other sites included barrows (burial chambers) and fougoues (pronounced foo goos), or caves. (The fougoue at Carn Euny was very like a kiva).
Holywell cave was the most stunning well. The Cornish coast is spectacular. Part of its appeal is its variety. It boasts wild, rocky cliffs, wide sand beaches, and magical tide pools. One of the finest convergences of these is at Holywell Bay, where steep, sensuous slate cliffs meet a broad sand beach. In the cliffs is a sacred well from which flows fresh water at low tide; at high tide it is completely filled by the sea. Susan was thrilled to take many pictures here. Alas, none of these survived the death of her camera, which crashed onto two rocks before plunging into a pool of salt water. (To go from the sacred to the profane, we also visited Jamaica Inn, frequented by pirates in past centuries and the basis of a novel by Daphne du Maurier, and a movie based on that novel. High on Bodmin Moor, it is still in operation, primarily as a tourist trap.) |
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The entrance to the great stone circle at Avebury. |
Avebury
A smaller circle that is part of the larger one. |
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