Mên-an-Tol
Encyclopedia
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Standing stone
Standing stones, orthostats, liths, or more commonly megaliths are solitary stones set vertically in the ground and come in many different varieties....
s near the Madron
Madron
Madron is a civil parish and village in west Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is a large rural parish on the Penwith peninsula north of Penzance.Madron village is situated approximately two miles northwest of Penzance town centre....
-Morvah
Morvah
Morvah is a civil parish and village on the Penwith peninsula in west Cornwall, United Kingdom. The village is situated approximately eight miles west-southwest of St Ives and 5½ miles north-west of Penzance....
road in Cornwall
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...
, United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. It is about 3 miles north west of Madron. It is also known locally as the "Crick Stone".
The name Mên-an-Tol is Cornish Language
Cornish language
Cornish is a Brythonic Celtic language and a recognised minority language of the United Kingdom. Along with Welsh and Breton, it is directly descended from the ancient British language spoken throughout much of Britain before the English language came to dominate...
, literally meaning "the hole stone".
It consists of three upright granite stones: a round stone with its middle holed out with two small standing stones to each side, in front of and behind the hole. When seen at an angle from one side, the stones form a three-dimensional "101" (see picture).
These stones might have been the entrance to some now vanished tomb. It is possible that they were part of some ancient calendar.
Mên-an-Tol is supposed to have a fairy
Fairy
A fairy is a type of mythical being or legendary creature, a form of spirit, often described as metaphysical, supernatural or preternatural.Fairies resemble various beings of other mythologies, though even folklore that uses the term...
or piskie guardian who can make miraculous cures. In one case a Changeling
Changeling
A changeling is a creature found in Western European folklore and folk religion. It is typically described as being the offspring of a fairy, troll, elf or other legendary creature that has been secretly left in the place of a human child. Sometimes the term is also used to refer to the child who...
baby was put through the stone in order for the mother to get the real child back. Evil piskies had changed her child and the ancient stones were able to reverse their evil spell.
Local legend
Cornish folklore
Cornish folklore is the folk tradition which has developed in Cornwall. There is much traditional folklore in Cornwall, often tales of giants, mermaids, Bucca, piskies or the 'pobel vean' These are still surprisingly popular today, with many events hosting a 'droll teller' to tell the stories:...
claims that if at full moon
Full moon
Full moon lunar phase that occurs when the Moon is on the opposite side of the Earth from the Sun. More precisely, a full moon occurs when the geocentric apparent longitudes of the Sun and Moon differ by 180 degrees; the Moon is then in opposition with the Sun.Lunar eclipses can only occur at...
a woman passes through the holed stone seven times backwards, she will soon become pregnant.
Another legend is that passage through the stone will cure a child of rickets (osteomalacia
Osteomalacia
Osteomalacia is the softening of the bones caused by defective bone mineralization secondary to inadequate amounts of available phosphorus and calcium, or because of overactive resorption of calcium from the bone as a result of hyperparathyroidism...
). For centuries, children with rickets were passed naked through the hole in the middle stone nine times. Its curative powers actually are reflected in its name.
The circular stone aligns exactly with the centre stone at Boscawen-Un
Boscawen-Un
Boscawen-Un is a Bronze age stone circle close to St Buryan in Cornwall, UK. It consists of 19 upright stones in an ellipse with diameters 24.9m and 21.9m, with another, leaning, stone just south of the centre. There is a west-facing gap in the circle, which may have formed an entrance. It is...
and the church at nearby St Buryan
St Buryan
St Buryan is a civil parish and village in Cornwall, United Kingdom.The village of St Buryan is situated approximately five miles west of Penzance along the B3283 towards Land's End...
. While this may conceivably be coincidental, the precision of the alignment suggests an intentional positioning of the structures in relation to each other.
The only other holed stone in Cornwall of this type is known as the 'Tolven Holed Stone' which can seen in a garden near Helston
Helston
Helston is a town and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated at the northern end of the Lizard Peninsula approximately 12 miles east of Penzance and nine miles southwest of Falmouth. Helston is the most southerly town in the UK and is around further south than...
.
External links
- The Mên-an-Tol at Megalithia.com
- The Mên-an-Tol on Richard's Ancient Site and Curiosity Pages
- Men-An-Tol site page on The Megalithic Portal
- Men-An-Tol site page on The Modern Antiquarian