The ‘entrance’ stones to the west circle
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Roy Goutté
 
Earlier this year the TimeSeekers volunteer clearance group highlighted three or four stone circles on Bodmin Moor that could benefit from a vegetation clearance and general tidy up. The twin circles on Emblance Downs were two such circles, so, after gaining the necessary approval from the Landowner, Natural England and Historic England, we were set to commence our work on the 21st August.
 
Having twin circles to work on is not an everyday event and as little appeared to be known about them we felt privileged to be given the chance to at least tidy them up and bring them back into the public gaze. As all members of TimeSeekers are furiously enthusiastic amateur archaeologists, it also gave us the opportunity to study the circles and general area to a much greater extent than just paying them a casual visit.
 
The enigmatic King Arthur’s Hall is but a stone’s throw away from the circles and walkers visiting the Hall often then carry on to Garrow Tor. In doing so they have to pass within sight of the circles, but unless they know that they are there, don’t spot them due to the reed and other vegetation coverage. Couple that with the fact that the eastern circle was very devoid of ring stones anyway and they have become almost forgotten. 
 
Within the TimeSeekers group we have some very enthusiastic dowsers and they found the twin circles to be of great interest. Regular followers will recall that when I submitted the article King Arthur’s Hall: The Dowsers’ Perspective to The Heritage Trust two years ago, a group of dowsers from the far west of Cornwall had paid the site a visit themselves and then submitted their own findings to me. It was of great interest to many readers so I will be featuring the findings of our own group of dowsers who took part in the Emblance Downs clearance as a follow-on to this article at a later date.
 
Roy Goutté
 
Full report here.