On Rame Head
Aug. 3rd, 2014 04:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunnRandomly we went to Rame Head: a long tall bulge of land pointing out into the sea.
It has a little building on it that from a distance looks like a chapel. Wikipedia calls it an 'intact shell' and says it is dedicated to St Michael, but at close quarters, it is fairly clear that the people who are mostly using it nowadays are equine. Possibly they still say horsy prayers to St Michael for providing them with a horse-shelter with such fine views.
Rosie Roo, on lead, with a puzzled PP in tow. For there were many, many rabbits, and I do not trust the common sense of lurchers not to leap off cliffs into the sea.
Brythen inside the chapel, admiring the view provided by St Michael for his ponies.
Earl Ordulf, the uncle of king Ethelred, gave Rame to Tavistock Abbey in 981 - in the height of the Viking period: Tavistock Abbey itself would be burned down by raiders in 997. You can't help wondering if the gift of a barren headland right in the path of any raiders that might be sailing along the South coast of Britain was really all that generous. Anyway, as a result, for a long time it used to be an odd little bit of Devon that had got stranded a long way on the wrong side of Tamar, until the county line was tidied up.
On the south side of the chapel is this big concrete platform thing, ably modelled by Rosie Roo. We guessed it a Second World War defence of some sort. from up here we could see a frigate, a submarine, and a number of little sailing yachts. The drop wasn't as alarming as it looks!
On the way home, we noticed a bird hovering very competently over the cliff-edge and pulled in to watch. Then we saw another: a pair of peregrine falcons, poised on the edge of the wind.
It has a little building on it that from a distance looks like a chapel. Wikipedia calls it an 'intact shell' and says it is dedicated to St Michael, but at close quarters, it is fairly clear that the people who are mostly using it nowadays are equine. Possibly they still say horsy prayers to St Michael for providing them with a horse-shelter with such fine views.
Rosie Roo, on lead, with a puzzled PP in tow. For there were many, many rabbits, and I do not trust the common sense of lurchers not to leap off cliffs into the sea.
Brythen inside the chapel, admiring the view provided by St Michael for his ponies.
Earl Ordulf, the uncle of king Ethelred, gave Rame to Tavistock Abbey in 981 - in the height of the Viking period: Tavistock Abbey itself would be burned down by raiders in 997. You can't help wondering if the gift of a barren headland right in the path of any raiders that might be sailing along the South coast of Britain was really all that generous. Anyway, as a result, for a long time it used to be an odd little bit of Devon that had got stranded a long way on the wrong side of Tamar, until the county line was tidied up.
On the south side of the chapel is this big concrete platform thing, ably modelled by Rosie Roo. We guessed it a Second World War defence of some sort. from up here we could see a frigate, a submarine, and a number of little sailing yachts. The drop wasn't as alarming as it looks!
On the way home, we noticed a bird hovering very competently over the cliff-edge and pulled in to watch. Then we saw another: a pair of peregrine falcons, poised on the edge of the wind.
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Date: 2014-08-04 07:54 am (UTC)