Kerdroya - The Tamar Dowsers and the Devon Dowsers at Colliford Lake on Bodmin Moor
- Alex Russell-Stoneham
- Jan 25
- 3 min read
While humans have been making their home around the south of Bodmin Moor since at least neolithic times - and Colliford Lake itself has been supplying the locality with drinking water since 1983 - another manmade feature in the area has been quietly settling into the local landscape over the last couple of years.
Kerdroya, literally a Celtic form of City of Troy, or The City of Turnings, is an appropriate description for the classic labyrinth now situated on the edge of Colliford, manifest in traditional Cornish hedging. At 56m across and with a complete footway - in and out - of around 1,500m, it is a substantial and fascinating entity purely in its material form. However, when adding in the plethora of dowsable aspects beyond the physical, it takes on a veritable presence of its own.
This construction was the enigmatic brainchild of Will Colman, who is renowned locally and acclaimed internationally for his work on the animated art-form that became the Man Engine. Consequently, it has all the hallmarks of Will's intense interest in Cornish history and achievement.
Tamar Dowser, Stuart Dow, an associate of Will, had been aware of the idea of Kerdroya almost from its inception - and was able to dowse for a suitable site for its construction. He was delighted to find that the centre of the labyrinth coincided with his advice, and of course that makes the feature all the more interesting to dowsers of various persuasions.
With the hedges at head height, it is actually easier to do a dowsing reconnaissance by circumnavigating the exterior. This shows that either by design or by development, Kerdroya embodies a substantial range of energies, features and grids of various types.
Also in the centre, are spiralling earth energy lines and water currents. While some of these may have been drawn in or repositioned, either by the built form or by the focussed activity of numerous visitors, Stuart's indication of an appropriate location for the labyrinth has certainly been vindicated.
A further layer of information for the dowser to examine is that not all the internal hedges are complete. Some exist only at ground level. This aspect creates a map of Cornwall running through the circular construction, which is only visible from above, or sensed by dowsing. Some of the twenty-odd participants on this visit were able to pick up earth energy features dowsable in everyday reality - but embedded map-dowsing style in the Kerdroya layout. I have a feeling that archaeologists and dowsers of future cultures will have a lot of fun scratching their heads (assuming they still have heads) with that level of informational sophistication incorporated into a such a solidly stone-built work of art.
While all labyrinths tend to be places of pilgrimage and meditation, this one has a distinctly local feel. Maybe it's the place, maybe the energies, maybe the intention of the designers and builders. Several of those attending felt strongly attracted to it and, although some had already visited Kerdroya on previous occasions, most of those of us new to the site vowed to return another day. It is a place of many layers. Despite the presence of tourists, children and a few dogs, the site and its setting had an air of timelessness and other-worldliness. People passed each other in silence, lost in their own enhanced reality of relaxed awareness.
The central refuge lured many of us to spend time and take stock. Guest, Imi, felt a strong energy from the stone in the centre, which pulled her to keep her hands on it for some considerable time. While, Helen noted that at the entrance to the centre was a spiral of five rings - and the central stone had an aura on four levels
Certainly, many of the stones seem to have been chosen for more than their shape, and add their own essence to the matrix. The offer to have a (tasteful) metal plaque on a chosen stone has been taken up by quite a few previous pilgrims - uniting their own intuitive sense of self with
that of the location.
Several of our group said that they hoped to return when the site had matured, and the
feeling is very much that Kerdroya is a waymarker on its own journey, both personal
and corporate.
Many thanks to Stuart and Helen for organising this field trip, which was thoroughly enjoyed
by us all on so many levels.
Nigel Twinn
Tamar Dowsers and Devon Dowsers
May 2025
For more information about the story of Kerdroya, please see:
