Lanyon Quoit is a

dolmen A dolmen () or portal tomb is a type of single-chamber megalithic tomb, usually consisting of two or more upright megaliths supporting a large flat horizontal capstone or "table". Most date from the early Neolithic (40003000 BCE) and were some ...

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a Historic counties of England, historic county and Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people ...

, England, United Kingdom, 2 miles southeast of

Morvah Morvah is a civil parish and village on the Penwith peninsula in west Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. Geography The village is centred approximately eight miles (13 km) west-southwest of St Ives and north-west of Penzance.Ordnance Su ...

. It collapsed in a storm in 1815 and was re-erected nine years later, and as a result the dolmen is now very different from its original appearance.

Location

Lanyon Quoit is located northwest of

Penzance Penzance ( ; kw, Pennsans) is a town, civil parish and port in the Penwith district of Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is the most westerly major town in Cornwall and is about west-southwest of Plymouth and west-southwest of London. Situ ...

on the road between

Madron Madron ( kw, Eglos Madern) is a civil parish and village in west Cornwall, Great Britain. Madron is named after Saint Madern's Church. Its annual Trafalgar Service commemorating the death of Vice Admiral Horatio Nelson was started on 27 Oc ...

and

. It stands 50 metres to the east of the road. 700 metres to the west lie the remains of another dolmen known as

West Lanyon Quoit West Lanyon Quoit, also known as Lower Lanyon Quoit, is the remains of a prehistoric dolmen situated in the parish of Madron in Cornwall . It was excavated in the late 18th century, and much of the structure has since been destroyed. Location ...

.WEST LANYON QUOIT
Pastscape, retrieved 8 November 2013

Description

Lanyon Quoit currently has three support stones which stand to a height of 1.5 metres.Timothy Darvill, Paul Stamper, Jane Timby, (2002), ''England: An Oxford Archaeological Guide to Sites from Earliest Times to AD 1600'', page 441. Oxford University Press. These bear a capstone which is 5.5 metres long,LANYON QUOIT
Pastscape, retrieved 8 November 2013 and which weighs more than 12 tonnes.Tom Quinn, (2007), ''The archaeology of Britain: from prehistory to the industrial age'', page 15. New Holland. In the eighteenth century the quoit had four supporting stones and the structure was tall enough for a person on horseback to ride under. On 19 October 1815, Lanyon Quoit fell down in a storm. Nine years later enough money was raised by local inhabitants to re-erect the structure, under the guidance of Captain Giddy of the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against Fr ...

. One of the original stones was considered too badly damaged to put back in place, thus there are only three uprights today and the structure does not stand so high as it once did. One of the uprights was turned at right-angles when the quoit was re-erected, but that is the only part of it which had its orientation changed. The cap stone is still aligned much as it was before the monument fell. The quoit lies at the north end of a

long barrow Long barrows are a style of monument constructed across Western Europe in the fifth and fourth millennia BCE, during the Early Neolithic period. Typically constructed from earth and either timber or stone, those using the latter material repre ...

26 metres long and 12 metres wide. The barrow, which is covered by grass and bracken, is damaged and its outline is difficult to see. At the south end of the barrow are some more large stones that may be the remains of one or more

cist A cist ( or ; also kist ; from grc-gre, κίστη, Middle Welsh ''Kist'' or Germanic ''Kiste'') is a small stone-built coffin-like box or ossuary used to hold the bodies of the dead. Examples can be found across Europe and in the Middle Ea ...

Investigations

In 1769

William Borlase William Borlase (2 February 169631 August 1772), Cornish antiquary, geologist and naturalist. From 1722, he was Rector of Ludgvan, Cornwall, where he died. He is remembered for his works ''The Antiquities of Cornwall'' (1754; 2nd ed., 1769) ...

described the megalithic site for the first time in a publication, illustrated with etchings in which the Lanyon Quoit's design and floor plan has a different look from today, given changes made following its 1815 collapse. Lanyon Quoit collapsed in a storm in 1815 and was re-erected in 1824. An etching from 1857 by R. T. Pentreath shows the megaliths in their present arrangement. A similar drawing appears in the 1864 book ''A Week at the Land's End'' by

John Thomas Blight : ''For the Australian poet, see John Blight.'' John Thomas Blight FSA (27 October 1835 – 23 January 1911) was a Cornish archaeological artist born near Redruth in Cornwall, England, UK. His father, Robert, a teacher, moved the family to P ...

. In 1872

William Copeland Borlase William Copeland Borlase (5 April 1848 – 31 March 1899) was a British antiquarian and Liberal politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1880 until 1887 when he was ruined by bankruptcy and scandal. Early life Borlase was born at Cas ...

, a descendant of the earlier Borlase, conducted further investigations and excavations were carried out.William Copeland Borlase, (1872), ''Naenia Cornubiae'', Longmans He reproduced the etchings of his ancestor and found them much more valuable than any other contemporary sketch since the monument had been subjected to such considerable change. In 1952 the then owner Edward Bolitho from Tregwainton donated the plot of land with the monument to the

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

References

External links

{{Commons category-inline, Lanyon Quoit Dolmens in Cornwall National Trust properties in Cornwall Penwith Tourist attractions in Cornwall Megalithic monuments in England Prehistoric sites in Cornwall Stone Age sites in Cornwall