Daniel Gumb’s cave is one of the more peculiar dwellings to be found on Bodmin Moor. Perched now on the edge of the old Cheesewring Quarry, the structure was not always in its current position. When it was originally built in the early 18th century, it stood on solid ground, but that ground was later carved away by quarrying activity. Fortunately, when the quarry expanded in the 19th century, workers preserved the dwelling by relocating its main stones. What remains today is a partial reconstruction of what was once a larger home, measuring around thirty feet in length and made up of three rooms beneath a massive granite slab. Gumb, born in 1703 in Linkinhorne, was a stonecutter by trade, and he built the cave entirely by hand around 1735. Over time, he shared this austere home with three wives, each in turn, and nine children. It may not have been the most comfortable of homes, but it came with no rent and was crafted from the very rock he worked each day. Daniel was not only a skilled craftsman but also a self-taught mathematician and devoted astronomer. He spent many evenings studying Euclid under the stars, carving mathematical diagrams into the slabs of his home. One such diagram, still visible today, is believed to be a proof of Pythagoras’s Theorem. Wilkie Collins, writing in Rambles Beyond Railways, described “the rock where he used to sit on calm summer evenings, absorbed over his tattered copy of Euclid.” Known as the Mountain Philosopher, Gumb’s reputation for intellect reached beyond the moor. Even William Cookworthy, who discovered China Clay in Cornwall, sought him out for conversation and study. Daniel Gumb died in 1776 at the age of seventy-three. His cave would have been lost to the quarry if not for the foresight of those who preserved it. Though smaller now, it still carries traces of his work, including carved diagrams and initials. A survey he completed in 1768 is held in the County Record Office, and his gravestone speaks to his humour and humility: "Here I lie by the churchyard door / Here I lie because I'm poor / The further in, the more you pay / But here lie I as warm as they." In a land filled with larger-than-life mythological characters, Daniel Gumb remains one of Cornwall’s most fascinating real-life legends.