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St Breock Beacon Kistvaen

Dolmen / Quoit / Cromlech

<b>St Breock Beacon Kistvaen</b>Posted by markj99Image © Mark Johnstone
Nearest Town:Padstow (5km NNW)
OS Ref (GB):   SW967682 / Sheet: 200
Latitude:50° 28' 39.63" N
Longitude:   4° 51' 56.59" W

Added by phil

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Fieldnotes

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Visited 19.02.23

I had difficulty in locating St Breock Beacon Kistvaen on my revisit. The thick vegetation lining the path to the trig point made an approach from here impossible. After some perseverance I found a way in from the road running W past Beacon Farm road end. Walk 40 yards W of the Beacon Farm road end to reach a vague path heading S into briars and gorse bushes. Head S towards a small gap between gorse and taller brushwood. After a 30 yard scramble through gorse and briars I reached a clear spot containing the ancient stones. The smaller E Stone is c. 7 ft long on a N-S Axis and the wedge-shaped W Stone is c. 9 ft long on a NW-SE Axis.
Posted by markj99
5th March 2023ce

Visited 16.4.12

This Dolmen is very close to Men Gurta but you can’t actually see it from the stone.
The reason for that is that it is hidden behind large gorse/bramble bushes.

To find the Dolmen all you have to do is face away from Men Gurta and make your way through the gorse to the right of the lane leading to a farm. As soon as you get in among the gorse you will easily see these large slabs of stone.

I nearly stepped on a dead rabbit hidden in the gorse – nice (not!)

Well worth looking for when visiting the more famous standing stone.
Posted by CARL
1st May 2012ce

Miscellaneous

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circle of stones at the Kistvaen?

Borlase reported that the site had a small cairn around the site. John Barnatt reported in his book "Prehistoric Cornwall" that the nearby MenGurta also had a small cairn of quartz stones in a 2 metre radius around it. The Magi stone also close by, is reported by Borlase to have had "a small circle of stones on edge"
Posted by phil
12th May 2003ce
Edited 12th May 2003ce

Only recently re-discovered near the Men gurta this "kistvaen" or entrance grave. It consists of two huge slabs of stone of a similar type to the nearby menhirs and the quoit at Pawton. I had seen it marked on some old maps but two separate books on local sites said it no longer existed!

First record by William Borlase in 1872 in his work Naenia Cornubiae.

He writes.....

"About 150 yards of the taller stone (Men Gurta) and upon equally high ground lies a flat stone of spar 9 feet 6 inches long by sis feet broad at its greatest breath resting on the ground at its northern edge and at its southern, diagonally upon a second stone 7 feet 6 inches long by 2 feet 6 inchesin breadth, and about the same in hieght above the ground. It has the appearance of an imperfectly form Kist-Vaen and therefore should pehaps have been inserted at a previous page.
A barrow of small stones from 30 to 40 feet in diameter lies around it, and a farmer mentioned the fact that an old man digging among them had once discovered something curious, but of what nature he could not remember. A small cairn also surrounded the adjacent monumentwhile barrows are scattered in abundance over the neighbouring downs."

A footnote on the page
This species of monument is sometimes called an "earth-fast Cromlech" sometimes a "demi-dolmen" - Examples are not uncommon in Brittany and at Kerland bears a strong resemblance to the above.

The site is almost unchanged compare with the sketch in Borlase's book although the area is slighty grown over. There is a trig point nearby, the site can be found slighty off the track that leads from the trig point if you walk to Men Gurta.

An exciting find and no Cornish guide book mentions it!
Posted by phil
11th May 2003ce
Edited 24th March 2013ce