Eylesbarrow Attained

"About time", I hear someone say, "about bloody time you got to that god-forsaken ... and I suppose you took some more photos as well. You did, didn't you. How many this time? I bet there's a sky-scape thing with golden clouds and not much ground. I bet there is. I bet."

"Oh! ... So what's that then?"

Moss, actually. Moss with the sun coming in over the top. Moss that's grown atop a stone which once marked the top of a wall that, apparently, led down to one of the shafts around Eylesbarrow Tin Mine.

To be honest, there's not too much to see once you get there. Most likely, ninety-five percent of the structures have long since been robbed of stone and now make up the walls in a good number of houses in Sheepstor and the immediate vicinity. Despite the lack, it turns out that Eylesbarrow was once the most prosperous of the 19th century tin mines on Dartmoor - certainly comparable with other examples such as Whiteworks and those in the Birch Tor area.

I got that bit from the 1999 Devon Archaeological Proceedings. Very exciting reading. It goes on about adits, comditches, flat rods, reaves and, my current favourite, whims. Super stuff.

Oh alright, it's not quite as exciting as Stone Rows or Roman Forts, so here's Clover, striking a natural pose, the kind of pose that all dogs strike when they're sitting in a barren window frame while nervously wondering whether she'll be left there for eternity.

Well of course we didn't leave her there. Not for an eternity. We'll go back tomorrow.

"Hold on. Wait a moment. I don't believe you left Clover for the night, but you slipped something in back there. You mentioned Roman Forts. That sounds interesting. I mean really interesting."

Patience, invented person. Patience. And while you're going about patiently, you might want to go back a few posts and read about the fort at Calstock. That was Roman.

"Oh .... well I suppose it was."

Alright, just to cheer you up, here's another cloud-scape thingy.