The spectacular views from the summit of Kit Hill, which dominates the west side of the Lower Tamar,
have attracted humans from the dawn of time.
Once a protected settlement, which became a Civil
War lookout, this ‘Hillfort’ last saw active service as a blockhouse community of workers serving a mineshaft in the sky. It is a place rich in a social history, rich in physical resources and resplendent with dowsing opportunities.
Sandwiched between two gloriously sunny days, I managed to alight on a more typical scenario for this exposed site - with a stiff breeze and a great grey skyscape. However, the rain gods held fire for a few hours and a group of mixed-experience dowsers were able to quietly explore the subtle energies of the site.
Working our way steadily through the dowser’s remit of water lines, earth energy currents, etheric colourings, ley alignments, lines of consciousness, manifestations, earth grids, planetary grids, ancient and more recent archaeology and anything else that came up in conversation - all in the space of a couple of hours - was asking a lot of those new to the craft. Yet everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, and to take away some useful ideas to try back at home.
Every time we go out, we all learn something new. I’m not sure if that was Oscar Wilde, Isaac Newton or myself, but it is almost the first law of dowsing. This time, when I worked out where the energy leys gather together on the (seemingly man made) platform at the top of the hill, I found them slightly to the west of the current chimney, which stands above the summit shaft. However, the lines of consciousness, which date to being of various ages from the late Iron Age up to the Victorian period, seemed to meet a few feet to the east, closer to the information boards by the chimney base. Was this because the energy leys were so much more ancient and the sighting lines were laid down when the topography of the summit looked more like it does today? Or, as Annie later suggested, has the axis of the earth shifted a little over the millennia. In which case, are all pre-historic leys adrift of their original alignments?
Gordon and I made a first attempt at finding some of the standing stones that once graced this apex – stones that appear to have been reused in the mine buildings, rather than carted away or broken up. This fascinating aspect of the dowsing would take a full day’s work in its own right.
With so much to mull over, and a post-glacial period required before setting off homewards, a group invasion of the local Louis Tea Rooms was organised.
From farmsteads to mineral mines, long barrows to 19th century wooden buildings, hillfort to wartime viewpoint to leisure space. Kit Hill has seen it all - and we can dowse it all there. It is a dowser’s paradise in microcosm - but just try to find yourself a day when you’re going to be blown away by the results of your investigations, rather than by a sou’wester!
