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Restormel: CELTIC TRADITIONS REVIVED AT BEAST BURNING

An ancient Celtic celebration is being revived at Colliford Lake Park at the end of the month when a 30 ft high wooden sculpture of The Beast of Bodmin Moor, created by a Cornwall-based internationally renowned sculptor, will be brought to life though flames.


Sculptor Robert Bradford has started work on his “beast fire sculpture� at his workshop in St Issey near Wadebridge, in preparation for the frame of the mammoth sized beast to be transported to Colliford Lake Park. Over the next three weeks the wooden frames will be clad with timber to take the form of a surreal mammoth sized beast which will be ceremoniously burned as part of an ancient Celtic tradition on Sunday October 30th.

This will be the third consecutive year that Colliford Lake Park in North Cornwall has offered an ‘alternative’ to modern Halloween festivities, in a celebration which aims to reconnect Cornish people with their Celtic roots, reviving the ancient practices of their ancestors in pre-Christian times.

In the Celtic calendar, the end of October marks the start of the New Year, as it is at this time of year that farming communities had brought in and stored their harvest and moved and secured livestock ready for the winter. It was a time for the old year to leave us and the New Year, along with its fresh promise, to be born.

Ancient Celts also believed that during this time the gap between this world and the afterlife was at its smallest, enabling the ghosts of the dead to mingle with the living. Bonfires were lit to honour those that had departed and help them on their journey to the next world as well as bringing the living good fortune for the year ahead.

Chris Franklin, owner of Colliford Lake Park, explains how his passion to embrace Celtic roots has led him to recreate an ancient tradition with the burning of the beast:

“Over recent years there has been a recognisable change in the way that many people living in Cornwall have become more aware of their Celtic roots and have wanted to find out more about the forefathers. Bodmin moor is renowned for its mystical ambiance which lends itself perfectly for holding a celebration that would have been an important part in lives of Celtic people many years ago.