The Nine Maidens at Belstone

I was staying in Okehampton for a while recently, doing a bit of cat sitting and catching up on some odd jobs. I had some spare time one morning so I decided to have a potter up the East Okment river, around Ball Hill, to get a bit of fresh air and exercise. The weather was rainy and windy, the sort of stuff I like walking in. As I was enjoying myself, I went further and further up towards Belstone and then got the idea that I would walk up to Belstone and have a look for the stone circle, known as The Nine Maidens, that I'd never managed to see there for some reason. I wasn't very well prepared at all, just having my light training shoes on and a small half empty bottle of water, and my camera of course, which I take nearly everywhere with me. I had no map, but I did have a small compass which is always in my bag.

I had a good old stroll around the hill, which I found to be covered in a lot of bullocks, as they have been reintroduced to many areas now, to keep some of the vegetation down I think.

The trouble with trying to find anything like a stone circle in a place like this is that the whole area is covered with stones of all sizes, so it's almost impossible to find anything out there unless you know exactly where it is, and then it always seems obvious. I walked round the east side of the hill, no luck. I walked up to the first tor and saw no sign of it. I went westwards and found some shelter for a bit, but no sign of it. I had pretty much given up and was heading back, when with the help of my 200mmm lens which doubles as a telescope, I spotted what looked like it in the distance. I was very pleased to find the circle, which actually turns out not to be a circle, but the remains of the outer wall of a burial chamber, or kistvaen, as they're also known as.

The legend behind the Nine Maidens is that a group of maidens danced on a Sunday and were turned to stone. As punishment they must dance every day at noon for the rest of eternity. Curiously, there are lots of legends about stones that were once dancers, and that also move at certain times of the day.

One of the things that is often difficult to get into photographs is the wind. The pictures above appear to be taken on a calm, still day, so I have included this short piece of film of the tree and circle to give a better indication of what the actual conditions were like. Volume warning.

Avebury - Wiltshire - 1983

east dartmoor walk

A good walk out on the east of Dartmoor to see if I can locate the other stone circle in the area. To the south is the more famous Scorhill (pronounced skoh-rull) stone circle which is easy to get to by walking from Gidleigh and which is popular both with walkers and photographers, and it is a beauty. I get off the bus at South Zeal and walk south a few miles down the lane avoiding the massive shape of Cosdon Hill which at 550 metres I don't need to be walking up today and then out onto the moor by following a lane made up of large stones, up over a hill and tor and down the other side heading westwards.

It is very difficult to locate anything out here as the landscape is so vast and empty that there isn't much in the way of landmark to orient yourself to. Finding a small stone circle in a landscape that is liberally covered in rocks turns out to be more of a challenge than I expected and I miss the circle completely on the way down. Realising that I had probably missed it I decide to work my way back up the hill again to see if I can see it on the way back, and there, just at the point of my giving up finding it, it appears, a low collection of stones arranged as a circle in exactly the same place as they were set about 4000 years ago.

Dartmoor is an odd and empty place and although very green is as close to a desert landscape as we get around here. Lots of sky, lots of grass and then the occasional sheep, cattle and dartmoor pony, but very little else. Easy to get lonely in this emptiness as you are made very much aware of your own insignificance, not only in space but in time as well. All afternoon and to the east I have been observing a large dark cloud shifting and spinning, building itself up to a large raincloud. It promises rain but as so often lately, it doesn't deliver.