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Summary

A standing stone secured in a small pedestal on cemented rocks.

Protected Status

• Scheduled Monument 15403: HARRY'S WALLS UNFINISHED 16TH CENTURY ARTILLERY CASTLE AND ADJACENT PREHISTORIC STANDING STONE AT MOUNT FLAGON, ST MARY'S

Other References/Statuses

• National Monuments Record: SV 91 SW 52
• National Record of the Historic Environment to Historic Environment Records data transfer
• National Record of the Historic Environment: 304100
• OS No. (OS Quarter-sheet and OS No.): SV91SW 52
• Primary Record No. (1985-2009): 7567
• SMR No. (OS Quarter-sheet and SMR No.): SV91SW 1

Monument Type(s):

• STANDING STONE (Neolithic - 4000 BC to 2501 BC)
• STANDING STONE (Bronze Age - 2500 BC to 801 BC)

Full description

A menhir originally described by Borlase (b1) as 3.0m high by 0.8m wide, placed on a mound. Ashbee (b2) says it has been secured in position in recent years, but traces of a small cairn can still be seen about it. He thinks that its slender, angular, slightly irregular form suggests it might have been originally split from a large block. Russell (b3) lists this standing stone. The OS field worker (h1) describes a standing stone, secured in position by insertion in a small pedestal on cemented rocks, standing on Mount Flagon, some 30m north of 'Harry's Walls' (7568). It is 2.3m high and 0.8m by 0.4m wide. There is a drill-hole in both the north and south faces. There is no evidence to indicate whether or not it is in situ, but it is probably on or near the spot where Borlase saw it. No trace of a surrounding cairn could be seen. This site lies within the limit of the Guardianship site of Harry's Walls (7568) and is also Scheduled. In 1988 (h2) it was found to be of the dimensions recorded by the OS fieldworker; its height including the pedestal (0.5m high) reaching 2.8m, and its wider faces being the NNE and SSW. Although some distance north of the stone structure of Harry's Walls it was located only 0.8m (or 0.4m if measured from the base of the pedestal) from the outer tip of the rock cut ditch which was abandoned unfinished in the layout of this structure. The stone was situated towards the south west side of a raised area approx 7.0m north east - south west and 4.0m north west - south east (ending at the lip of a ditch on the south east) by 0.7m max high. This is the feature described by Ashbee as the remains of a cairn, but as its profile is irregular and the only visible component material is natural rock, exposed in six places, this interpretation could not be confirmed.
The monument was included in the Schedule on 11/5/1950, was confimed on 9/10/1981, and the scheduling was amended on 1/4/1994.

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Site history:
1: 1978. JGB/OS
2: 1988. PARKES, C / CAU
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Ordnance Survey, 1978, OS78/F12/3 (Photograph). SCO30324.

Johns, C, 2009, Standing Stone, Mount Flagon, St Mary's, Isles of Scilly -Archaeological assessment for periodic condition survey (Cornwall Event Report). SCO25279.

<1> Borlase, W, 1756, Observations on the Ancient and Present State of the Islands of Scilly, 34 (Bibliographic reference). SCO2883.

<2> Ashbee, P, 1974, Ancient Scilly, 149, 151, 313, PL 104 (Bibliographic reference). SCO2739.

<3> Russell, V, 1980, Isles of Scilly Survey, 45 (Bibliographic reference). SCO4312.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• ECO3690 - Standing Stone, Mount Flagon, St Mary's, Isles of Scilly

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