The subterranean source and the sanctuary in the sky
It helps to know what you are looking for. I had been there at least twice - and on both occasions we had wandered around hopefully looking for our quest. However, this time Angie's persistence paid off and we eventually found the 'well on Showry Tor', which is in fact a spring under Little Rough Tor. I live and learn, but sadly I fail to remember!
At first sight, this remarkable water source is, to put it mildly, unprepossessing. Brackish water dribbles down the north facing slope, highly mineralised at source and dowsing as decidedly undrinkable at surface level. The only indication that all was not quite as it seemed was the presence of a single cloutie (thankfully, just the one).
Crossing water lines marked faults in the sub-strata at about 25 and 45 feet down, and crossing energy (dragon?) lines contrived to form a saltire shape above the outflow. An energy ley powered through and out of the mouth of the granite slabbed spring on its way towards Delabole and beyond.
Pieces of both the Lunar and the Venusian grids described a second saltire right over the spring itself - and the whole shebang was encased in a Benker grid box. At a more physically hospitable location, this kind of complex energy matrix would have led us deep into cathedral-standard territory here. Additionally, at what would appear to be such an exclusively feminine site, the overall dowsing revealed an amicable balance of energy qualities.
The site guardian appeared to be happy to have us there, and Ali gave our thanks in her inimitable amanner.
Given these auspicious dowsing results, it was no surprise that the site felt warm (in a very cold wind), calm and significant. The ambience was bewitching, and we stood and sat around for some while soaking it up and taking in the clear, breathtaking view right over to the rugged coast of north Cornwall and out towards the Irish Sea. Turbines trundled in the breeze, water trickled through the marsh, larks sang overhead and everything else seemed silent and still.
Our second site also took a bit of finding, but at least we knew it was at the top of Rough Tor, only marginally the second highest peak in Cornwall.
The Chapel of St Michael is a tiny refuge, of which just the foundations remain. Dowsing as having been a stone construction since the 1100's, it exudes Celtic Christianity, rather than the Romano Christian overlayer prevalent at so many successionally reinvented religious places. Last used regularly around 350 years ago, it seems to have been a site well known to the pre-Christians, but never then hosting a material structure (probably because of the extreme location in an area never blessed with much in the way of native woodland).
T he chapel is crossed by a ley, which also appears to line up with (but out of sight of) the ruined stone circle at Fernacre, which we visited last year.
Crossing water lines indicate the position of a long lost altar stone in the north east corner. A second ley streams straight up the spine of the chapel and over the tip of the tor.
On precisely the same alignment are both a piece of the solar grid and the centre strand of a Benker line. It's a wake up and smell the coffee sort of spot (except that the only coffee was in my flask, but you know what I mean). High on the hillside and underpinned by the sun, it's a place with a predominantly male quality - but not excessively so.
Dowsing indicated that there had been up to four 'monks' living here at some point, but that it was more of a hermitage or a shrine, rather than a place for group worship. In endemically poor weather, with the only water source some distance away, and next to no local sources of food unless you are into uncooked rabbit, it has never been somewhere to stay, other than for a period of hair-shirt meditation.
During our visit, it felt wonderfully calm, yet invigorating - in bright sunshine and sheltered from the northwesterly wind, we were again able to soak up the benign ambience for some while. No wonder people made the supreme effort to construct a contemplative shelter in this otherwise difficult terain.
The summit of Rough Tor, as with all such elevated places, is criss-crossed with long straight lines - some arising naturally, others induced by humans, some embodying earth energies, others seemingly just informational entities. What seems, on the surface of the land, to be a quite empty and windswept location is actually a vibrant hub of intersecting and interacting lines of force and intent. You just need good outdoor clothing, and a spare hour or two, to appreciate them.
Throughout our sojourn, we were accompanied by local wildlife - from cuckoos in the woodland (accompanied by hail!) to buzzards flying effortlessly overhead and lizards (zootoca vivipara) in the walls of the chapel. Were they pleased to see us? Well, they didn't complain.
Families enjoyed the bracing blusteriness, dogs seemed happy enough and were well-behaved and the dowsers had a really worthwhile day. Good weather, great views,
good dowsing, good company, uplifting experience - what more could we have wanted?
Many thanks to Angie Kibble for suggesting this outing, for finding the 'well' (!) and for providing the images printed in this piece.
Nigel Twinn
Tamar Dowsers
April 2024
nb. For those interested in visiting the Charlotte Dymond memorial by the Rough Tor car park, it is currently surrounded by mire. So be sure to wear your wellingtons if you wish to go there - or better still wait for the summer drought.
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