Back in January of this year, I was witness to unthinking desecration by a family group at Men an Tol. I recently returned to the scene, or rather, I attempted to return to the scene. On this occasion, my path was blocked by cows grazing on the approaches to the monument. The surface damage done by the grazing cattle was much worse than that caused by the family earlier in the year.
Indeed, I’m not alone in thinking that the damage caused could have easily been avoided, were it not for poor advice from certain government departments, coupled with the greed of the owners on whose land the monument lies. Save Penwith Moors, (SPM) a local pressure group acting to campaign lawfully for the removal of all new stock proofing (fencing, gates and cattle grids) from a few selected areas of open access moorland popular for local and tourist recreation, have been keeping a daily eye on the situation at Men an Tol, and have recently issued the following Open Letter to English Heritage, Natural England, Cornish Ancient Sites Protection Network (CASPN), as well as the local MP for the area:
“More potential trouble at Men-an-Tol!
As at Tregeseal Circle the cattle are gathering around the stones and using the two uprights as rubbing posts as well as covering the area with heaps of dung and ruining the public right of way – virtually impassable down towards the stream – by churning it up.
This is not an isolated out of the way site – and that would be no excuse anyway – but, probably, the most popular frequented ancient monument in the Peninsula and an iconic part of Cornish Heritage. It is high time remedial action was taken after this warning message – preferably by removing grazing stock from this Croft and undertaking manual maintenance.”
The Save Penwith Moors campaign web site and Facebook page includes photographic and video evidence of the damage being caused by the ill-conceived grazing policies as instigated by Natural England and (unjustifiably) supported by English Heritage who are ultimately legally responsible for the protection of the Scheduled Ancient Monument. We would urge all our readers to visit the SPM pages and give them every support possible in their campaign against the current grazing policies.
The Heritage Journal 
5 comments
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25/10/2013 at 14:41
Heyjude
We were there recently and noted the amount of dung around the site. Fortunately the weather was dry or we may have given up on getting there. I read your previous blog about this site too (desecration) and have to say that I didn’t see any information sign on the way to the monument, although it may have been hidden by the hedgerow. A shame that such a place is not better looked after.
29/10/2013 at 20:34
The Crafty Witch
Why on earth they can’t fence this monument off from the livestock? linked this article on our FB page. Thank you.
30/10/2013 at 10:39
Craig Weatherhill
If we fenced off all our monuments being affected by these schemes, the whole open ambience of this very ancient and unique landscape would be utterly ruined, and it would visually divorce the monument from its overall context containing other, related monuments. There is no call to graze this self-sustaining moor, or the other moor nearby where monuments have been serially damaged by grazing with a ridiculously large and non-traditional species (longhorns), whose intimidating appearance with sweeping, razor-sharp horns of a span of nearly 3 feet has discouraged nearly 70% of the visitors to the moor we had just 4 years ago. Both farmers admit that they wouldn’t graze their animals out there if it wasn’t for the £20,000+ per year that Natural ‘England’ is throwing at them. More subtle and benign forms of management are viable where needed, but they require some physical work of the type that CASPN does well and for nothing. Both farmers have any number of pasture fields that are presently empty and doing nothing. It really makes no sense at all.
27/07/2019 at 10:00
Nancy Giesen
is it safe to walk up to Men an tol now? thinking of doing this walk but with young children!
27/07/2019 at 10:05
Alan S.
It’s safe to walk with young children, but as with all walks in the countryside, be aware of the country code, and give farm animals a wide berth, particularly if they have young with them!