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Summary

A stone which is a suitable size to have been a part of the Giant's Grave, a destroyed chambered tomb, but no other evidence found.

Protected Status: None recorded

Other References/Statuses

• OS No. (OS Quarter-sheet and OS No.): SW43NW 37.2
• Primary Record No. (1985-2009): 30817.10
• SMR No. (OS Quarter-sheet and SMR No.): SW43NW 221.1

Monument Type(s):

• CHAMBERED TOMB? (Bronze Age - 2500 BC to 801 BC)

Full description

The OS in 1961 record from local information (b1) that the stone thought to be Giant's Stone and possibly the sole remains of a destroyed chambered tomb called Giant's Grave (30817), is that lying at SW 4020 3564. This is a large recumbent slab measuring 2.0m by 1.7m by 0.4m thick. The ground in the vicinity is hummocky but there is nothing to indicate the former existance of a barrow or cairn. Although the stone is of suitable size and shape to be part of a burial chamber there is no evidence for its use as such (h1). The OS in 1975 record that this stone, positioned on the OS 25-inch map of 1961 (b2), has now been removed and buried in a large heap of clearance stones, 20m from the site (h2).
(b1) - Mann, WHF, 1961, Pers Comm to OS

A Giant's Stone is referred to in Henderson, C, 1955-60, Ecclesiastical Antiquities of the 109 parishes of West Cornwall & Ecclesiastical History of the 4 Western Hundreds, 357 (Article in serial).p357: “Close to the well is a rock known as the Giants’ Stone and people living in Morvah can remember when it was the custom to dance around it.” However, due to the distance from Tregaminion Holy Well and being incorporated into a hedge it has been questioned whether MCO73111 is in fact the stone referred to (3).

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Site history:
1: 1961. PITCHER, GH / OS
2: 1975. QUINNELL, NV / OS
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<2> Ordnance Survey, 1970s, 1:10,000 OS Map (Cartographic materials). SCO4045.

<3> Penwith Landscape Partnership, 2020, PLP site recording form, 13/09/2022 (Report). SCO29175.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events: none recorded

Related records

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