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Radio 4 programme Making History.

The Tristan Stone – is it the Tristan who loved Isolde?

Listener’s query:

“I live in Fowey, Cornwall, and outside of Fowey there is a monolith with the legend ‘Here lies Tristan son of King Mark’. Is the Tristan on the stone monolith the Tristan of the Tristan and Iseult story?“:

Brief summary:

The Tristan Stone, near Fowey in Cornwall, is a weathered monolith about 9 feet high like a Neolithic standing stone. It might even be a Neolithic stone, but it has a worn inscription on it: Drustans hic iacet Cunomori filius, which means “Here lies Drustanus, the son of Cunomorus”.

Continues...

Archaeologists from Cornwall County Council’s Historic Environment Service are uncovering the early history of Scarcewater, near St.Stephen-in-Brannel, where work on a much needed tip for the china clay industry is to begin shortly.

read more...

St Keverne local history website has this interesting page by Margaret Hunt,

Amazing pictures and details of the excavation carried out Oct 2003......

The fogou tunnel, when excavated, revealed a magnificent structure with walling up to 1.5 m high and a scatter of huge lintel stones lying haphazardly just above the floor level. A possible human tooth was found lying near the floor surface next to pieces of black burnished ware pottery.

“I’m a Christian and a Druid”

Cornwall’s Arch Druid Ed Prynn believes it’s possible to be both a Christian and a Druid. He told BBC Cornwall what his faith means to him.

Ed Prynn’s site

Cornwall has the reputation of being a magical, mystical and spiritual place. We went to see Arch Druid Ed Prynn to discuss the Merlin, angels and marrying for a year and day...

“Being the Arch Druid of Cornwall is a special, unusual job. I didn’t get elected it fell out of the heavens for me.”

The healing stone is a replica of the Men-an-tol holed stone.

Ed refuses to have his faith bound by other people’s ideas: “I was born locked into both faiths – Christian and Druid.

“Being a Druid you are a free spirit. The door is open to explore all the magic – the angels, the little people, the ley lines. Druids can experiment with all the things which are forbidden by the Bible.

“I go to chapel but everything’s from the one book. People ask me how can I be in both camps but spiritual camps are not like political or military camps. It’s all about loving one another. It’s all about trying to be one.”

Prynn had his first mystic encounter at the age of 9 and became drawn by the power of standing stones.

He started to put the stones in his garden in 1982 and the last stone was put in 1999 to celebrate the total eclipse.

“The stones here have made new spiritual history. Thousands of people have touched the stones and left some of their magic aura. Being a Christian you are supposed to follow the teaching of the Bible.

“The stones are important because the energy gets drawn into them. You can feel this type of energy, you feel a bit wobbly on your feet.”

“Cornwall is a special place – we’re not like a big city, we have a different way of life completely. Cornwall has all these old stones, cultures and ways. The ways have never died out and the people around who know how to make the magic work.”

The showpiece of Ed’s stones is the Angel’s runway: “The rocking stone provides a seal so that a spell would work. It’s used for swearing in of priests and priestesses, healing, fertility – people even write their lottery tickets on it.

“The Rocking Stone has magic energy lines around it. The site can be magic or people can be magic. I believe both are here and that the Godly mystique has come to this place.”

Ed is happy to accept visitors to his home in St Merryn to see the stones. You can’t miss it...

Poldowrian Site and Archaeological Museum

Poldowrian is a multi-aged site ranging from the late Mesolithic to the Iron Age (c5,500-200BC), situated between Coverack and Kennack Sands, (NGR SW 74851690).

It was discovered in 1967 by the late Mr Peter Hadley and Mrs Hadley who had moved to the farm in 1964. Mr Hadley had always felt that the area had possibilities for archaeological discoveries with its close proximity to the Lankidden Iron Age Cliff Castle and a cliff fire in 1967 was to be the beginning of remarkable discoveries.

The info on this webpage comes from
“Two days in Cornwall with the Cambrian Archæological Association – 1862”

there are five diagrams of the beehive hut and some nearby sites.......

Fallen Cromlech, Bosphrennis
Plan of Hut, Bosullow
Plan of Chûn Castle
Chûn Cromlech
Mên-an-tol, Madron
Plan of St. Madron’s Well

This webpage is the work of Rick Parsons.

Ian West’s site has a great photo showing the stone before it toppled.

(No wonder it doesn’t rock anymore!)

Good pics and a decription of some rare Cornish rock art.

according to this website....

Pilsdon Pen (the name is a part Celtic name, pen being well known to all walkers in Wales as the local name there for a hill) is the highest hill of Dorset, standing 277m – that is 908 feet above the sea, 92 feet short of being a mountain!?

Links to Cornish Stones Circles / Menhirs / Hillforts / and Earth mysteries etc.

5 pics of this rarely visted site on Bodmin moor.
(no other info)

5 colour pics of Fernacre Circle, Bodmin moor.

This is an arty website rather than a guide, but the pics are good.

Some photos of a MONSTER sized, Japaneze stone chambers

(Is this a wedge or passage tomb?)

Ishibutai crypt is, in overall size, the largest in Japan. The largest of its boulders, the one forming the southern part of the ceiling, is estimated to weigh 75 tons!!!.

2 photos in black and white and some neat diagrams

A similar tomb at a site called Jourugami was recently found to contain a stone coffin see
japantoday.com/e/?content=news&cat=1&id=206258
for more on that one.

Another pair of Giants with photo

Colour pic and description here

Couple of pics here. Originally one of a pair of circles.

A good photo and guide.

One of the best known neolithic sites in S.Wales
3 good photos of Arthur’s Stone (Maen Ceti) on this page.

The site also has gazetteer of Ancient Monuments and sites in the UK with special attention being paid to S.Wales

good photos

Two stone circles and two stone rows at this Dartmoor site. The small circle is probably a cairn circle.

Four colour photos and links to other Dartmoor circles. Here’s a snip from site...

Brisworthy is a very attractive site and a pleasant place to sit especially as there was a short burst of sunshine when we reached it making a break from a misty and overcast day. The circle is over 80ft (24.8m) diameter and made up of 27 stones from an original 42. They are grey granite, some with quartz veins running through them and large quartz crystals in them. There are several loose stones that have been added to the circle.

The site includes a group of small stone circles around cairns, long rows, standing stones, cists, cairns, hut circles and pounds.

Another Stone circle and row on Dartmoor.
Actually, its a ring cairn with 31 granite stones 11m diameter with a 350m stone row stretching away from it

3 photos here of this Dartmoor circle

This is a cairn circle around 8.5m diameter consisting of 22 stones. In the centre is a cist with the stones forming the box.

A pair of circles on Dartmoor.
4 photos of this site

Stone circle and stone row on Dartmoor
3 photos and guide to site

Where else can you find a Stone circle a stone row and a standing stone in the same location?

Seven pictures and guide.

Great pics and more

The works.
pics, sketches, description and more

Roly Smith explores two Iron Age forts that offered little protection against Roman legionnaires and Cromwell’s dragoons

Discussion of Castle Killibury’s Arthurian Connection
By David Nash Ford.

The concept of King Arthur’s Capital is epitomised by the medieval Camelot, yet some of the earliest references to his court refer instead to the City of Celliwig, a name now associated with Killibury in Egloshayle, Cornwall.

Site by Laurence Hunt.
West Penwith is justly famous for its prehistoric stone circles, quoits and standing stones. The area also has a large number of holy wells.

This page has a graphic of the Cubert stone inscription
shortcut link below

ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/cisp/database/picpage/cubrt_1_1.html

MEYN MAMVRO is the magazine of ancient stones and sacred sites in Cornwall. It has been published regularly 3 times a year since 1986, and, taken together, all the editions contain a wealth of original material about the prehistory and ancient customs of Cornwall.

EARTH ENERGIES * ANCIENT STONES * SACRED SITES * PAGANISM * LEYPATHS
CORNISH PRE-HISTORY & CULTURE * MEGALITHIC MYSTERIES * LEGENDS & FOLKLORE

The database includes every non-Runic inscription raised on a stone monument within Celtic-speaking areas (Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Dumnonia, Brittany and the Isle of Man) in the early middle ages (AD 400-1000). There are over 1,200 such inscriptions.

Between 1978 and 1985 an intensive archaeological survey of Bodmin Moor took place using both air photographs and field survey. It was undertaken by the Cornwall Archaeological Unit and the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England (RCHME).

A contemporary theory, first advanced by E. M. R. Ditmas in her study of the topography of the Tristan legend, suggests that this may have been the site of the hermit Ogrin’s chapel, where the lovers, having escaped from King Mark, found temporary refuge. The medieval poet Beroul, who wrote one of the earliest versions of the story, appears to display an intimate knowledge of the Cornish landscape, and his description of Ogrin’s chapel certainly bears a more than passing resemblance to Roche Rock.