Tregeagle and the Bottomless Pool

A limpet shell with a hole in it, and a pool that has no bottom.

Dozmary Pool is a small natural lake on Bodmin Moor, south of Bolventor. Cornish tradition says the wicked steward Jan Tregeagle, raised from the dead to give evidence in a court case, could not be allowed to rest. Churchmen bound him to an endless task: to empty the pool, said to be bottomless, using a limpet shell with a hole in it. Year after year he laboured on the dark moor. Later tellings say he fled from the work to Roche Rock and was set new tasks, such as weaving ropes of sand. The pool is also named as where Excalibur was returned to the Lady of the Lake.