Barnaby Bear finds the Source of the River Fowey

Key An "A" Road, or dual carriageway A "B" Road, or smaller road, often with no road markings Farm buildings or houses A church or chapel A hill or tor The height of a hill-top, above sea level Marsh or peat bog A spring Wooded area - natural or forestry River, stream, spring or other water

This map shows the source of the Fowey River. Let's find it. Can you find Buttern Hill (it's the northernmost (or farthest north) hill)? Can you see the spring at the foot (bottom) of the hill? That is the source of the River Fowey. (Check the key to see what a spring looks like.) What else do you notice about the land where the source is? What would you expect to see if you went there? Another way to find the source is to find the River Fowey, and follow it back, upstream until you can't go any further back. You should be at the foot of Buttern Hill now. Click on the source of the River Fowey to follow Barnaby Bear there. What do you notice about the places where the buildings are on the map? Who would you expect to find living in the most rural ones? What do you think they might do for a job?

This map is a sketch of the area, and is only roughly to scale.

The rings that show hills are called contour lines. On Ordnance Survey maps, these show the height of ground.
Which two tors have two peaks? (Shown by two separate contour lines and heights.)
Which tor is the highest? (This is the highest point in Cornwall, and is 417m above sea level.)
Using the scale, roughly how far away from the River Fowey is this tor?
Which tor is the lowest?
The land out here is moorland, not really suitable for arable farming (growing crops) - what else might the land be used for?
Why do you think there aren't many buildings close to the river?
What do you notice about the path that the river takes, and the hills?
Roughly what direction does the river travel in?
How far away, and in what direction is Bolventor (the nearest village)?

Want another challenge? Click here to fix Barnaby Bear's broken map!

Now let's go and find the river!
Click here to follow Barnaby Bear's journey to the source of the river.
Click here to go straight to the source of the river.
or use the buttons below to go back to another part of Barnaby Bear's website.