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 somet ...
in
Cornwall
Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...
, England, United Kingdom, 2 miles southeast of
Morvah
Morvah is a civil parishes in England, civil parish and village on the Penwith, Penwith peninsula in west Cornwall, England, United Kingdom.
Geography
The village is centred approximately eight miles (13 km) west-southwest of St Ives, Corn ...
. 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. Situated ...
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 Octo ...
and
Morvah
Morvah is a civil parishes in England, civil parish and village on the Penwith, Penwith peninsula in west Cornwall, England, United Kingdom.
Geography
The village is centred approximately eight miles (13 km) west-southwest of St Ives, Corn ...
. 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
We ...
.
[WEST LANYON QUOIT](_blank)
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](_blank)
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 F ...
. 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 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
cists.
Investigations

In 1769
William Borlase 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 ...
.
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 Castl ...
, 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.
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