Sun and fun at Bowles
About the Place: Bowles served a wide range of purposes prior to its presents role. There is evidence of prehistoric habitation. Much later smugglers (trading cannon and other iron products for French brandy and cigars) are thought to have used the outcrop as a hiding place. During the 19th century the rock provided a backcloth to an avenue of trees and a carriageway leading to the house of John Bowles, a Dutchman. Subsequently the rock provided the site for a gypsy camp and a rubbish tip. Dutchman. Subsequently the rock provided the site for a gipsy camp and a rubbish tip. During the Second World War, Bowls was used as a firing range, hence the numerous pock-marks on Range Wall. In the late 1550s and early 1960s notoriously ferocious pigs had their sties at the base of the rocks. This seems to be the reason for the large square-cut holes under the overhangs in the region of carbide Finger. The rocks were purchased by their resent owners, the Bowles Rock Trust in 1963, and it was after this that the site was developed as an outdoor center, and the ski slope and other facilities were built.