Bodmin Moor (Cornish Standard Written Form: Goon Brenn)[1] is a granite moorland in north-eastern Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is 208 square kilometres (80 sq mi) in size, and dates from the Carboniferous period of geological history. It includes Brown Willy, the highest point in Cornwall, and Rough Tor, a slightly lower peak. Many of Cornwall's rivers have their sources here. It has been inhabited since at least the Neolithic era, when early farmers started clearing trees and farming the land. They left their megalithic monuments, hut circles and cairns, and the Bronze Age culture that followed left further cairns, and more stone circles and stone rows. By medieval and modern times, nearly all the forest was gone and livestock rearing predominated.
The name Bodmin Moor is relatively recent. An early mention is in the Royal Cornwall Gazette of 28 November 1812.[2] The upland area was formerly known as Fowey Moor after the River Fowey, which rises within it.[3]
- ^ Place-names in the Standard Written Form (SWF) Archived 15 May 2013 at the Wayback Machine : List of place-names agreed by the MAGA Signage Panel Archived 15 May 2013 at the Wayback Machine. Cornish Language Partnership.
- ^ "To Mr. Flindell". Royal Cornwall Gazette. England. 28 November 1812. Retrieved 17 May 2018 – via British Newspaper Archive.
- ^ Pounds, Norman John Greville (2000). A History of the English Parish: the culture of religion from Augustine to Victoria. Cambridge University Press. p. 593. ISBN 978-0-521-63351-2.; p. 72