Hunting out the Jubilee Rock on Bodmin Moor

One of my ‘ideas of living’ is to make sure we get out and explore more. A beautiful morning after some pretty grim winter storms was the catalyst to getting the ‘Wild Guide’ out. I bought five of these brilliant books for presents and ourselves last year.

We plumped for going to Blisland to find the Jubilee Rock and wended our way down the valleys and country roads where signposts are few and far between and the roads criss cross in every direction. The book said it was hard to find, so when I saw a friendly face standing outside the pub in Blisland, I knew I had my man. Always best to ask a local and his directions were invaluable. A couple of turns in the road, we crossed a junction up an unmade no through road to a little hamlet called Pendrift where we parked the car.

Wellies on, we stomped up the lane, an ancient sunken byway. You could feel and hear the footsteps and carts that had passed along it through its history.Through the gate, we were suddenly catapulted up onto the open moorland, ferny, wild, stunted, colourful, mossy with large granite boulders everywhere.The views were stunning, right out to the coast, the camel estuary in the west and north towards Roughtor and Brown Willy. It was slightly wet and boggy underfoot, but with no wind, we wandered around exploring the pathways admiring the ancient windblown hawthorns, the naturally bonsai’ed gorse bushes and a very upright holly tree.

The Jubilee Rock is one huge granite stone which looks like it has been dropped out of the sky. Lieutenant John Rogers did the original carving in 1810 to mark the Jubilee of George III, and in 1897 it was engraved by to mark Queen Victoria’s Jubilee and restored in 2012 to mark the Queens diamond Jubilee and is now a listed monument. I thought we were going to have to hunt for the engravings, but you couldn’t miss them. A large Britannia, a coat of arms, the cornish emblem, a plough, a ship and a beehive are carved into the sides and on the top. There are two steps on the top side, so it’s easy to climb atop.

The sky was becoming heavy with large clouds building up and we could see rain coming down in the far distance, so we retreated to the car and stopped off at the pub in blisland for a pint and sunday roast. Great atmosphere and lunch was fine, but not the best homecooked roast we were expecting, so would not recommend. But if you are that way, the pubs at St Mabyn and St Tudy are excellent.