Early evening in June - when lovelier for a walk out across Bodmin Moor - especially with the aim of investigating an intriguing structure with a romantic name - King Arthur's Hall.?
The day dawned - cold, wet, misty. Fellow dowsers arrived for lunch. "We only drove into this at Five Lanes - it's fine in Launceston". No improvement by afternoon. "Well, we'll go on over to St Breward - the pub stays open all day if it's no-go". However, in thick mist ten hardy souls set out across the open moor in an approximate direction. Follow the hedge then bear left was the general idea. Keep together - Peg's got a whistle. And yes, we found it.
Norden's Description of Cornwall (1728) describes it as "a square plot … situate on a playne Mountayne, wrowghte some 3 foote into the grounde, and by reason of the depression of the place, ther standeth a stange or Poole of water, the place sett rounde aboute with flat stones". He knew it as King Arthur's Hall, the name it still bears.
Many of us found strong reactions using rods and pendulums, both across the site and around certain large stones. Alan plotted four ley lines crossing as an inner rectangle. The recent Bodmin Moor, An Archaeological Survey suggests a medieval date as likely, though an earlier origin is possible. Locally thought to be a medieval cattle pound, other researchers suggest a type of henge. Certainly, by dating with pendulums some of us found the site to date back 3,500 - 6,000 years.
As we left, the mist cleared giving us a view to Roughtor, BrownWilly and Garrow - and a sense of the importance of this site.
Joy Montague
Tamar Dowsers
June 2002