Nearing the end of our series on Cornish Quoits, and nearing the end of the land, we continue with three more Penwithian quoits.

 

9. Mulfra Quoit

Well placed at the summit of Mulfra Hill, with excellent all-round views, before the capstone collapsed this would have resembled the box-like construction of Chun Quoit which we’ll visit at the end of our journey. The outstanding feature of the 3.2m by 3.0m capstone here is a chamfered ridge on the base which would have fit snugly inside the uprights to support the capstone. Only three uprights remain, it is unknown whether there would have originally been more.

Further information: 

Cornwall HER
The Megalithic Portal
Wikipedia

10. Bosporthennis Quoit

Pronounced ‘Bosprennis’, three of possibly four original upright stones survive. The capstone is somewhat damaged, having been removed and unsuccessfully trimmed for use as a possible millstone. The area around Bosporthennis is rich in antiquities, and a quoit in the area is mentioned in Hunt’s Popular Romances of the West of England:

In Bosprenis Croft there was a very large coit or cromlech. It is said to have been
fifteen feet square, and not more than one foot thick in any part. This was broken in
two parts some years since, and taken to Penzance to form the beds for two ovens.

This description does not match the extant cromlech in any way, so must refer to a lost monument. One wonders how many more have been lost in this way?

Correspondence in the Cornish Telegraph in 1871 confirms that the capstone of the existing quoit had fallen ‘long before the living memory of anyone in 1865’.

Further information: 

Cornwall HER
The Megalithic Portal
Wikipedia

11. Lanyon Quoit

Possibly the most photographed monument in West Penwith, Lanyon Quoit is sadly, despite appearances, possibly the most damaged of the Cornish quoits. The stones were (poorly) restored in 1824, after collapsing in a storm in 1815. The quoit was described prior to its collapse in Hitchin’s History of Cornwall:

At Lanyon… the incumbent stone of this monument is about nineteen feet long; but its thickness, which is not proportioned to its area, is rather irregular. In the middle, and on its eastern edge, it is sixteen inches; at each end rather less; but at the western edge it is full two feet. The two principal supporters of the incumbent stone were either not originally placed in a true perpendicular, or they have since been forced from it by the prodigious weight which they have been compelled to sustain. At present they have an inclination in their summits towards the verge of the incumbent stone, and consequently they recede from each other in the same proportion. There is however no danger of their ultimately giving way (sic). For as the stone by which they are pressed, has its under surface somewhat inclined towards a concave form, the weight must chiefly rest on the outward extremities of the supporters, and therefore prevent them from falling asunder, as much so as if the supporters had been exactly perpendicular, and the incumbent stone strictly flat and horizontal.

This monument, which is more elevated than anyone besides of this kind which the county can produce, being sufficiently high for a man to sit on horseback under it, stands on a low bank of earth, that is raised about two feet above the surrounding soil.

Given that the monument now requires anyone over 5’9″ to crouch when passing under it, it is clear that the reconstruction caused grave damage to the height of the supporting stones. As stated on Wikipedia (link below), on 19 October 1815, Lanyon Quoit fell down in a storm. Nine years later enough money was raised by local inhabitants to re-erect the structure, under the guidance of Captain Giddy of the Royal Navy. One of the original stones was considered too badly damaged to put back in place, thus there are only three uprights today and the structure does not stand so high as it once did. The reconstruction also placed the structure at right angles to its original position. There is a faint carving on one of the uprights, ‘1824’, the date of the reconstruction.

Further information: 

Cornwall HER
The Megalithic Portal
Wikipedia