Minions

Carodon Hill

Old mine used as a Heritage Centre

Lottie ignored the fields this morning, as she wanted to explore the drive.  She led Steve down the drive then on down the road towards the River Inny.  Steve was not happy walking along the road as it had high Cornish hedges and is very narrow.  So if they met any cars or any other road user it could be difficult to get past, and impossible to leap out of the way if they were going too fast. However they met nothing.

Front of the Heritage Centre

As we were just turning up at Chelle’s to go to Holywell late afternoon, we decided to explore the Tors we could see from the kitchen window. Steve was not sure which tors these were but one had two aereals on it so it stood out. But after debating it and consulting the map I found our host had named them for us in her welcome pack. We decided to look at The Hurlers Circles out at Minions and see if the Tors there were the ones we could see from the window.

It was a nice drive out to Minions, through Rilla Mill, which is very picturesque.  As drove to Minions we crossed a cattle grid, so I was aware that there may well be sheep about.

The Cheesewring

Lottie exploring

Once at Minions we parked in the car park nearest the Heritage Centre. Lottie was keen to explore, but she did allow us to look round the Heritage Centre first. It had interesting information on the mining history of Minions and a glass roof so we could look up through the ruined interior. We then walked quite a way towards the Cheesewring, with Lottie running free, so that we had a very good view of it.  It did look like the Tor we could see from the window and the one with the two aerials on was the other side of Minions, so we had found the Tors we could see from the cottage. The views from Minions were lovely and we could see for miles due to the good weather.

The ground was saturated with many deep puddles around. Lottie enjoyed this because she could cool off when she wanted to and have a drink.

“Look out sheep,” I called urging Steve to put Lottie on the lead.

Minions worked here

“Isn’t that a rock,” he replied. He put her back on the lead and stared at a recumbent sheep. When the sheep were lying down it was very difficult to see them as they blended into the landscape, as their colour was similar to ground cover. Lottie did not mind the lead and headed straight for the brown fleeced sheep. At last one sheep raised her head and Steve agreed it was not a rock.

On the way back to the car park we read the information boards. 

It was getting close to lunch time when we left Minions, so we headed straight to Chelle’s going over the top of Bodmin moor.

The view from Minions

We got to Chelle’s for lunch, a bit later than anticipated but not a problem. We explained where we had been and suggested it would be a very good place to take the children.

After lunch we rested and Lottie took the opportunity to catch up on her sleep.

We left Chelle’s about 15:30 for Holywell. We set off first hoping to give Lottie a run before Chelle arrived. There was plenty of room in the NT car park, as many had left and the car park has been extended.

It was not easy to let Lottie off the lead due to the number of holiday makers about. The good weather meant the beach was fairly crowded.

Unusual stone circles

. We did manage to let her have a run over some of the dunes, but she was reluctant as she seemed to know Chelle and the children were meeting us.

We went back to meet Chelle, who appreciated help getting all the children to the stream. Once we were all together the girls found where they wanted to play on the dunes just above the stream. So we didn’t have to trek through the dunes to reach the beach.

one of the many mines at Minions

Lottie soon got fed up and started to grab the children’s buckets. she annoyed them trying to play with everything.  After about ten minutes Steve realised Lottie was hungry, as it was more than an hour after her normal dinner time.  So we took her back to the car to give her dinner. Once she eaten we were going to go home, but Lottie seemed keen to stay, so we decided to go back and help Chelle with the children and everything she had with her. This time Lottie was well behaved and we were able to help Chelle walk the children back and carry some of the bags.

Holywell 

From Holywell we went straight back to the cottage, which was at least an hours’ drive.  We had a rest once we were back and then dinner.  Lottie just slept all evening.