Bodmin Moor

Bodmin Moor is the granite core of Cornwall, about two hundred square kilometres of rough grazing rising to Brown Willy at 420 metres, the county's highest point, and Rough Tor beside it. It is thick with prehistory: the Hurlers, three Bronze Age stone circles in a line at Minions, the Trethevy Quoit dolmen, and hut circles across the slopes. Cheesewring, a stack of naturally weathered granite slabs balanced above a quarry, looks artificial and is not. Jamaica Inn at Bolventor, a coaching inn on the moor road, gave Daphne du Maurier the title and setting of her 1936 novel after she got lost riding there. The Beast of Bodmin, a large cat reported since the 1970s, has never been substantiated by a government investigation or by anyone else.

What you actually see

• The Hurlers - three Bronze Age circles aligned at Minions.
• Cheesewring - a naturally balanced granite stack above a quarry.
• Brown Willy and Rough Tor - the two highest points in Cornwall.
• Jamaica Inn - the moor-road coaching inn of du Maurier's novel.

When to go

April to October for walking; the moor is exposed, boggy and prone to sudden fog that makes navigation genuinely difficult. Winter is bleak and the access lanes flood.

Honest expectations

Paths are unmarked across much of the moor and fog descends fast, so a map and compass matter. The ground is wet almost everywhere. Jamaica Inn is now a large pub with a museum and coach parking rather than an isolated inn. The Beast is folklore.

Nearby

Bodmin and the Camel Trail lie west; Launceston and the Tamar are east.