MEN-AN-TOL
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| Photo taken this summer on my latest trip back "home". |
Delving into the myths and legends of Cornwall recently has been a joy - none more so than the stories and superstitions surrounding the many ancient and enigmatic stones littered casually throughout the Cornish landscape.
I remember as a child happily crawling in and out of the mythical stone hole - old bones won't allow me that pleasure now, but I made a point of looking up the strange stories surrounding this odd monument.
Men-an-Tol is a small stone circle with a central holed stone. It stands in dramatic, windswept, moorland beside a pathway leading off a minor road between Madron and Morvah in the far west of Cornwall. For generations it has enchanted and mystified people.
It's supposed to have a fairy or piskie guardian who can conjure up miraculous cures. It's said that when evil piskies turned a woman's child into a changling, she put the baby through the stone and the evil spell was reversed.
Some of the many legends and beliefs are still held locally:
Healing: children passed through the hole nine times against the sun will be cured of rickets (the fact there there are no cases of rickets in Cornwall now may speak for its efficacy. 😆)
Astronomy: some say that the stone group was used as an astronomical observatory.
Fertility: A modern story insists that a woman passing through the stone seven times backwards during a full moon will become pregnant.
Divination: some believe that placing two brass pins on the stones and watching their movement can predict the future.
Portal: one of the strongest legends is that it serves a role as a portal into the land of fairies. Local folklore says passing through the holed stone nine times will give you the chance to have your greatest wishes granted too.
Beyond these mysteries Men-an-Tol holds its own historical importance. It is believed to date back to the bronze age making it over 3,500 years old. Recent discovery of further buried stones beneath the turf has shed new light on the type of monument Men-anTol once was.
It was known in the past as the 'Devil's Eye' and the 'Crick Stone' and I think that its allure and dark mystique owes much to the timeless magic still swirling in the mists and moonlight of a wild Cornish moor.
Website: sharontregenza.com
4 comments:
I was quite amazed to find, upon checking this site on a well known mapping app, that there are a gaggle of barrows, mounds, circles.., even the remains of a long house, within a radius of just a few hundred metres of this. Quite fascinating, though I must admit that when I've ventured away from the roads not too far from there, I've often wondered if my next step might be down an old mineshaft.
Hi, Andrew. Yes, there is so much more to this site - I've just touched on the surface. I'm going to visit it again on my next trip home. You're right about the old mine shafts though - a bit worrying.
I love this! Had never heard of this site before - thanks, Sharon!
Fascinating post, Sharon!
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