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Lanyon Quoit

OS grid ref:- SW 430 337

Lanyon QuoitImposing Lanyon Quoit is estimated to date from 2500 B.C. and lies 2 miles southeast of the coastal vilage of Morvah.

The monument is the remains of a long barrow, the huge chamber tomb consists of 3 upright stones supporting a large 17' capstone, which weighs over thirteen tons, it would at one time have been covered with turf. The quoit was originally 90' long and so high that it was said a horse could be ridden under it.

Lanyon Quoit is believed to be the burial chamber of a long mound and is is unusual in many ways, it may have been more of a mausoleum than a grave. Also known as the Giant's Table, or Giant's Tomb, local legend states that a giant's bones were found in the tomb.

William Borlase described the site for the first time in 1769 in a publication, illustrated with etchings in which the Lanyon Quoit's design and floor plan which appears differently from how it presently looks. Lanyon Quoit collapsed in a violent storm in 1815, breaking one of its four stone supports and was re-erected in 1824 by public subscription, which accounts for its present lower height. . An etching dating from 1857 by R. T. Pentreath shows the megaliths in their present arrangement. In 1872 William Copeland Borlase,the grandson of William Borlase, carried out excavations at the site.

He reproduced the etchings of his grandfather 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 of Tregwainton donated the plot of land with the monument to the National Trust.

Directions

Lanyon Quoit is situated close to the road between Morvah and Madron and stands around 50 metres to the east of the road.





Prehistoric Sites in Cornwall