Cornwall arts and culture from genius loci in cornwall

NEW DAYS, OLD DAYS by Clies Stevens

The title describes the feeling of taking our new greyhound up to one of Finnegan’s favourite places the ancient settlement near the top of Trendrine hill, easily found on any O/S map on the St.Ives to Zennor road.

click to enlarge this picture of Zennor in West Cornwall

Finnegan my prince of dogs died early this year and the sense of loss was incredible. I realised there was not one place around my favourite walks I could go without sensing his presence, and Barney dog his constant companion was refusing to eat he mourned so much.

Enter Bella, a racing greyhound from Ireland, a true aristocrat from the canine world who now shares our life, home and hearth.

Barney is now eating well again and I find I have the old keenness to explore the physical and that ‘other world’ that is so prevalent down here.

I had waited until Bella gained confidence and got her feet under the table, and we started by her exploring the fields around us here in the top end of St.Ives. Now today was the day to take both dogs up to the old settlement and see what if anything had changed since my last visit. The track starts from the locally Known ‘Eagles nest,’ a large walled residence on the road. One can park in several of the old dug outs used to make the road. Walking up to the place gives one a sense of going back in time because the landscape is little changed from centuries back. The old-field boundaries are still visible as are other less noticeable things; odd shaped mounds and humps that need investigating. The dogs where quite happy to trot around pushing black noses into places where other creatures of the night had been resting, Barney giving yips of pure excitement at the s.p.m (smells per metre) and Bella following hopeful about what she did not quite know.

This is an ancient landscape, full of tumuli and cairns, settlements and those curious things the Quoits; and this is one of those places where you find out if you can feel the ancestors! Touch the rocks they used to build the houses with, sense the effort needed to and the skill to place those rocks just so as to give the maximum protection, and then look at where they built. High up, the O/S says 250mts, but the old ones knew nothing about any sense of measuring height and could not have cared less.

The rain slashed down on us that day up there, just like it would have done way back when the old ones where here. Both dogs where soaking but still gambolling around, and as the rain lifted a little I could make out faintly in the distance where other settlements would be.

There are hut circles and more dwellings, cairns and enclosures, tumuli and the nine maidens, an ancient Neolithic circle of stones that are still revered to this day although many do not care why they are.

If I tell you that you can feel the rocks, you would think I am one of those mystic fellows or worse! But I feel the land beneath my feet I can sense the power of the sea and beauty in the blue of the big sky above me.

We three spent quite some time up there, lashed by rain and buffeted by winds from the south west, and squelching our way back to the car and dry towels for the dogs, I had a sense of belonging again, and with Bella nudging me I knew she did as well.

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