Cornwall has a wealth of stories relating to the landscape: both natural features carved by the action of wind, rain and sea; and man-made monuments such as Quoits, Stone Circles, Menhirs and Holed Stones. There is also a huge catalogue of stories connected with churches, Holy wells, the sea, wild animals ... the list is as endless as man's imagination. As this site grows, more and more of these stories will be added. If you have any that you'd like to see included, please e-mail me.

The Hurlers

The Hurlers stand as a memorial to the perils of playing games on a Sunday. The Hurlers are a line of three stone circles on the edge of Bodmin Moor, not far from Liskeard, ranging in diameter from 108 feet to 140 feet, and dating from about 1500 BC. Their original purpose was probably something to do with druidic rites, but, like most unusual features of the Cornish landscape, there is a legend to explain their origin.

Many centuries ago the game of hurling was popular in Cornwall, a sort of primitive rugby game with goals several miles apart (It is still played in St Ives and in the village of St Columb. Follow this link to read more about the sport).

The folk of St Cleer loved the game and would play it whenever the opportunity arose, even on Sundays. This was their downfall. Despite the disapproving lectures of the local saint and priest, St Cleer himself, they continued to play for the honour of their village and a game was set for a Sunday against the villagers of St Ives. St Cleer went in search of his errant flock and found them in the midst of a hotly contested match. He ordered them to cease their game and respect the Sabbath but they only told him not to be a spoilsport and to return to his prayers. Angered, St Cleer raised his staff and pronounced in solemn tones that since they preferred their game to the worship of God they must stay there forever more as a lesson to others. He lowered his staff and the players were instantly turned to stone, hurling forever on the wastes of Craddock Moor.

There is also a curious optical illusion connected with the Hurlers. It is said that if you try to count them with the naked eye, you will reach a different total every time.

The Merry Maidens and the Pipers

At Boleigh, near Lands End, you will find the Merry Maidens, or Dans Maen (Stone dance). This is a circle of 19 stones approximately 70 feet in diameter. A few hundred yards away, are two tall standing stones, 13½ feet and 15 feet high respectively, called The Pipers.

The story goes that 19 maidens were on their way to church on a Sunday when they were distracted by the sound of two pipers playing a dance. The maidens danced the day away rather than attend church. But then, without warning, a thunderbolt fell from the sky and turned them all to stone. They had been punished for their sacrilege along with the pipers.

In 1907 an Englishman bought the farm where the Merry Maidens stone circle stands. Thinking that the stones lessened the value of the field, the new owner ordered one of his workers to pull them down and add them to the stone walls surrounding the meadow. The worker, a Cornishman, protested, but the Englishman insisted that it was his field and that the worker should do as he was told.

Next day the Cornishman hitched up three shire horses to a chain and began the task. As they began to pull over the first stone, the lead horse suddenly panicked, reared up, then fell over dead.

Reporting this to his master, the Cornishman asked if he should fetch another horse for the task. "No," said the landowner. "Set the stone back upright. We'll pull the lot of them down later."

But the stone circle was left undisturbed, and remains so to this day.

Duloe Stone Circle

Duloe is a small village north of Looe. The stone circle consists of 8 stones, that unusually have been made of local quartz rather than granite. It is possible that the stone ring was originally the retaining wall of a barrow.

Excavations in 1861 and 1967 revealed a ribbon-handled urn of the mid-second millennium BC and strewn charcoal.

Other Cornish stone circles include Boskednan, Tregeseal, Craddock Moor, Altarnun and Boscawen Un. For a lot more information on Cornwall's many stone monuments, visit The Modern Antiquarian website or the Megalithics site.

Men-An-Tol

Near Madron, on the Lands End peninsula, the Men-an-tol is an upright circular stone with a hole in the middle. On either side it is flanked by two upright stones. Some archaeologists believe that these three stones are the remains of a Neolithic tomb, primarily because holed stones have been found in conjunction with the entrances to burial chambers. Others believe that it may be an early astronomical observatory.

It is known locally as the Crick Stone, and is believed to have healing powers for a crick in the back. The doughnut-shaped stone is best known for the traditional belief that it had the power to heal illnesses. To cure rickets and tuberculosis, naked children were passed through the hole three times and then dragged through the grass three times toward the east. Adults seeking cure from rheumatism or spinal troubles crawled through the hole nine times against the sun. It has also, for obvious reasons, been considered to be a fertility symbol.

The holed stone is also sometimes known as the Devil's Eye and was believed to have prophetic qualities. According to Robert Hunt:

'If two brass pins are carefully laid across each other on the top edge of the stone, any question put to the rock will be answered by the pins acquiring, through some unknown agency, a peculiar motion.'

The Tolven

There is another less well-known holed stone in Cornwall at Constantine, near Gweek on the Lizard peninsula. It is a Triangular 2.29 slab with a 4.44 m diameter hole placed 0.71 m from the ground and is known as the Tolven or Tolvan Stone.

Like the Men-an-tol, the Tolven is said to have curative properties. Babies should be passed through the hole nine times, going back and forth alternately, finishing on the side with the mound, and should be laid down with a sixpence under their head (Taken from Grinsell's 1862 source, Folklore of Prehistoric Sites in Britain). The stone is also said to ensure fertility, particularly to newly married couples, but only after they have squeezed their naked bodies through the hole. As the Tolven currently stands in the back garden of a cottage, we're not sure how easy it would be to try this! The old engraving from 1870 above shows a child about to be passed through the stone.

There are many standing stones, or longstones, widely distributed throughout Cornwall. More commonly known by the Cornish term menhir (men - stone; hir- long), there are nearly ninety in the Lands End peninsula alone.

These tall granite blocks often stand alone and the sheer logistics of moving them to their location and erecting them pay tribute to the engineers of Bronze Age times. Some were doubtless used for religious rites whilst others stand as huge gravestones, marking the burial places of ancient folk. Inevitably, legends have grown up around them. Here are just a few:

The Blind Fiddler

Also called the Tregunno or Tregonebris Stone. This is a massive stone, some 11½ feet high and stands in a field near Newlyn. The stone gets its name from 18th century Methodist preachers telling their flock that the stone is a wayward musician, struck into stone for performing on a Sunday.

Some people link The Blind Fiddler to the Higher Drift stones, and tell a similar tale of two sisters struck into stone for not obeying the Sabbath.

Men Scryfa

The name means inscribed stone, and it is one of several standing stones along the Tinners' Way (a modern long distance footpath) including the Men-an-tol. There is an inscription on the stone in Latin 'Rialobrani Cunovali Filii' meaning 'Rialobran, son of Cunoval'.

It is thought to be the tombstone of a king killed in the 6th century Battle of Gendhal Moor. The stone is nine feet high, and the legend is that the king was as tall as that. He is said to be buried under the stone, complete with his treasures and weapons.

King Doniert's Stone

An inscribed stone near Dobwalls which translates as 'Doniert ordered this cross for the good of his soul'He is thought to have been a ninth century king who drowned in the River Fowey.

Cornwall possesses many megalithic chamber tombs, the last resting place of warriors from some four thousand years ago. These are probably the most fascinating of all Cornwall's many antiquities. Known variously as cairns, dolmens, quoits, tumuli and cromlech, there are a particularly large number of them in and around the Lands End peninsula and on the Isles of Scilly. Among the most impressive are Trethevy Quoit, near Liskeard and Lanyon Quoit, situated between Penzance and Lands End. These megalithic tombs were burial chambers not for one but many, some accommodating twenty or more corpses. They were, in effect, stone charnel houses constructed of huge stone slabs which were then originally covered in earth to become burial mounds.

Nature and local farmers have in many cases conspired to remove the mounds, to reveal these extraordinary monuments to Bronze Age folk. Throughout Cornwall, fields are dotted with tumuli, or burial mounds. Many have been destroyed over the centuries but hundreds still remain, merely grassy mounds to the naked eye but beneath them lie stone capped burial chambers, some containing no doubt ancient artefacts and ornate cremation urns from thousands of years ago.

King Arthur's Stone

'In the western part of Cornwall, all the marks of any peculiar kind found on the rocks are referred either to the giants or the devil. In the eastern part of the county such markings are almost always attributed to Arthur.
Not far from the Devil's Coit in St Columb, on the edge of the Gossmoor, there is a large stone upon which are deeply impressed marks, which a little fancy may convert into the marks of four horseshoes. This is "King Arthur's Stone," and these marks were made by the horse upon which the British king rode when he resided at Castle Denis, and hunted on these moors. King Arthur's bed, and chair, and caves, are frequently to be met with.'

'The Giant's Coits, -- and many traditions of these will be found in the section devoted to the giant romances -- are probably monuments of the earliest types of rock mythology. Those of Arthur belong to the period when the Britons were so far advanced in civilization as to war under experienced rulers; and those which are appropriated by the devil are evidently instances of the influence of priestcraft [Roman Catholicism] on the minds of an impressible people.'

(Taken from Robert Hunt, Popular Romances of the West of England.)

Lanyon Quoit

Between Penzance and lands End, King Arthur is said to have used the stone top as a dining table just before his last battle. This burial chamber is well preserved, and the impressive top stone measures 15 feet by 10 feet. Manoeuvring such massive slabs from a quarry to their final resting place would have been a huge undertaking for Bronze Age man.

Trethevy Quoit

Near Liskeard, a very impressive Quoit. Quoits were megalithic chamber tombs, and are about 4000 years old. Trevethy Quoit is particularly well preserved (many of these burial chambers have been destroyed over the years by farming, and by the effects of the weather). Burial chambers like this would have held twenty or thirty corpses, who would have been buried with their treasures and weapons.

Other quoits can be found at Chun and Zennor. Visit some the websites listed above to learn more.

Table-Mên

At a short distance from Sennen church, and near the end of a cottage, is a block of granite, nearly eight feet long, and about three feet high. This rock is known as the Table-mên, or Table-main, which appears to signify the stone-table. At Bosavern, in St. Just, is a somewhat similar flat stone; and the same story attaches to each.

It is to the effect that some Saxon Kings used the stone as a dining table. The number has been variously stated; some traditions fixing on three kings, others on seven. Hals is far more explicit for, as he says, on the authority of the chronicle of Samuel Daniell, they were:

'Ethelbert, 5th king of Kent;
Cissa, 2d king of the South Saxons;
Kingills, 6th king of the West Saxons;
Sebert, 3d king of the East Saxons;
Ethelfred, 7th king of the Northumbers;
Penda, 5th king of the Mercians; and
Sigebert, 5th king of the East Angles;

all of whom flourished about the year 600.'

At a point where the four parishes of Zennor, Morvah, Gulval, and Madron meet, is a flat stone with a cross cut on it. The Saxon kings are also said to have dined on this.

The only tradition which is known amongst the peasantry of Sennen is, that Prince Arthur and the Kings who aided him against the Danes, in the great battle fought near Vellan-Drucher, dined on the Table-mên, after which they defeated the Danes.

'Numerous Logan rocks exist on the granite hills of the county, but that remarkable mass which is poised on the cubical masses forming its Cyclopean support, at Trereen, is beyond all others "The Logan Stone."

A more sublime spot could not have been chosen by the Bardic priesthood for any ordeal connected with their worship; and even admitting that nature may have disposed the huge mass to wear away, so as to rest delicately poised on a pivot, it is highly probable that the wild worship of the untrained tribes, who had passed to those islands from the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, may have led them to believe that some superhuman power belonged to such a strangely balanced mass of rock.

Nothing can be more certain than that through all time, passing on from father to son, there has been a wild reverence of this mass of rock; and long after the days when the Druid ceased to be there is every reason for believing that the Christian priests, if they did not encourage, did not forbid, the use of this and similar rocks to be used as places of ordeal by the uneducated and superstitious people around.

Hence the mass of rock on which is poised the Logan Stone has ever been connected with the supernatural. To the south of the Logan Rock is a high peak of granite, towering above the other rocks; this is known as the Castle Peak.

No one can say for how long a period, but most certainly for ages, this peak has been the midnight rendezvous for witches. Many a man, and woman too, now sleeping quietly in the churchyard of St Levan, would, had they the power, attest to have seen the witches flying into the Castle Peak on moonlight nights mounted on the stems of the ragwort (Senécio Jacobæa Linn.), and bringing with them the things necessary to make their charms potent and strong.

This place was long noted as the gathering place of the army of witches who took their departure for Wales, where they would luxuriate at the most favored seasons of the year upon the milk of the Welshmen's cows. From this peak many a struggling ship has been watched by a malignant crone, while she has been brewing the tempest to destroy it; and many a rejoicing chorus has been echoed, in horror, by the cliffs around, when the witches have been croaking their miserable delight over the perishing crews, as they have watched man, woman, and child drowning, whom they were presently to rob of the treasures they were bringing home from other lands.

Upon the rocks behind the Logan Rock it would appear that every kind of mischief which can befall man or beast was once brewed by the St Levan witches.

Touch a Logan stone nine times at midnight, and any woman will become a witch. A more certain plan is said to be to get on the Giant's Rock at Zennor Church-town nine times without shaking it. Seeing that this rock was at one time a very sensitive Logan stone, the task was somewhat difficult.'

(Taken from Robert Hunt, Popular Romances of the West of England.)

In 1824 a group of sailors fell to temptation and trundled the 65 ton Logan Rock into the sea at Treen Castle. Under-lieutenant Hugh Goldsmith, nephew of the poet Oliver Goldsmith, faced a public outcry and was forced to replace the boulder from 30 metres below. Using some impressive engineering, hundreds of hands they succeeded and the Logan Rock was replaced and can still be seen today - although it has never rocked quite so much ever since.

In nearby Nancledra, there used to be a Logan stone that rocked only at midnight. It was known as the 12 o'Clock Stone. Children suffering from rickets were cured if laid on the stone and rocked, but this only worked if they were born in wedlock. The stone would not rock for the illegitimate.

As Robert Hunt explains, Logan-stones were said to be favourite meeting places of local witches. Anyone wanting to be a witch had to go secretly at midnight to the stone and touch it nine times.

Nine was a magical number in the world of superstition. It was the number of times one should crawl on all fours through the Crick or Creeping Stone at Madron (The Men-an-tol) to cure lumbago. Of course, the crawling had to be widdershins or against the sun, and the sufferer had to be well enough to crouch on hands and knees.

There are many legends of towns and countries submerged beneath the waves, the most famous of which is, of course, Atlantis. In Cornwall, there are also tales of a land lost beneath the sea called Lyonesse (or Lethowsou).

Lyonesse, we are told, was once a country beyond Land's End that boasted fine cities and 140 churches. King Arthur is said have visited the country (and even fought battles there) and there are links also to the legend of Tristan and Iseult. However, nothing of Lyonesse now remains. For on November 11th 1099, a great storm blew up and the marauding sea swept over it, drowning the luckless inhabitants and submerging the kingdom beneath the waves, until all that remained to view were the mountains called the Casitterides at its furthest western extremity. We now know these mountain peaks as the Scilly Isles. Only one man survived the deluge. His name was Trevilian and he rode a white horse up to high ground at Perranuthnoe (or Marazion, depending on which version you read) before the waves could overwhelm him.

A 16th century writer tells us that Land's End once stretched far to the west with a watchtower at the farthest point to guide sailors. The rocks known as the Seven Stones were believed to be the remains of a great city, called "The Town" by sailors, who told of dragging up window, doors and other domestic items in their nets. They also related how they had heard the church bells of Lyonesse ringing beneath the waves.

As late as the 1930s a journalist from the News Chronicle, Stanley Baron, was awoken in the night by the muffled ringing of bells and was told by his hosts that he had heard the bells of Lyonesse. A former mayor of Wilton, Edith Oliver, claimed she had twice seen towers, domes, spires and battlements beneath the waves whilst standing on the cliffs at Land's End. It is a rough and rocky sea and many a mariner has met his doom there, so it is not hard to believe that, like most legends, there is an element of truth in it.

It is said that the unearthing of human bones in the sand at Crantock is also from this lost land.

Inundation by the sea is common in low-lying coastal areas. There is a radition that Lelant and Phillack towns were all meadow land, and that the whole was covered with sand in a single night. Also that the low tract of land extended on both sides of Hayle far beyond the present bar, so that the sea has swallowed up some hundreds of acres.

The people say that the sight of the ancient church and village of Lelant was somewhere seaward of the Black Rock; the ancient burial-ground has been long washed away, and that human teeth are still frequently found on the shore after a great undertow, that takes the sand out to sea.

Many circumstances seem to confirm the probability of the tradition. The sand was drifting inland at such a rate before the reed-like plant called by the present inhabitants the spire was planted, that the whole of the land about the village would have been rendered worthless ere this, but for the stability given to it. The land from which the sand has been cleared, on the sea side of the church, has evidently been ploughed as the furrows are quite apparent between the ridges.

They say that there was a market held in Lelant when St Ives was scarcely a village. Lelant being the mother church would seem to prove this. One can easily understand how a large tract of land of the nature of that under Lelant sand-hills would be washed away in a comparatively short time, as the soil at the low-water level is a early clay. This is constantly being washed down by high tides, and carried away by the undercurrent, as it contains no stone to form a pebbly beach, and therefore there is nothing left to protect the shore.

Some claim that if the light was right (or in the light of a certain phase of the Moon), and you had the "sight", you could still see the lost viallage. Some stories also claim that if were out in a boat, in exactly the right place with the sun at exactly the right angle, you could look into the sea and see the village on shore.

Upton Barton is another 'lost' village. In 1893, one writer recorded:

'The coast of this (Gwithian, Deanery of Penwith) Parish is half buried in sand, as is the case with several other parishes on this side of Cornwall.

More than 120 years ago a sudden sandstorm overwhelmed the Barton of Upton, and the family in the farmhouse only escaped suffocation by making their way through the chamber windows. In 1808 the sands shifted and disclosed the buried house still standing. Two fields, that were a few years ago were open, are now buried in sand 12 feet deep; and the churchtown would have been overwhelmed, but that the people checked the further advance of the sand by planting a kind of rush (Arundo arenaria) in it. The road from the Churchtown to Godrevy is still often buried in the sand.'

And at Gunwalloe Church Cove at the Lizard, you can see the tiny 15th century church of St Winwaloe, with its tower built into the cliff, separate from the main building, and usually half-buried in blown sand. It was once buried in sand and lost for many years.

(With Thanks to Phil Ellery and Sabine Serocka for their research).

The Cheesewring

The Cheesewring is a natural rock formation, formed by erosion by wind and rain, that stands near the village of Minions on the southern edge of Bodmin Moor. It takes its name from a kind of compress once used in the cheese-making and cider-making industries and consists of a series of large flat boulders, some over 30 feet in circumference, with the largest ones sitting on the smaller ones.

Legend tells us that the Giants became annoyed that the Saints were enjoying far too much attention from the Cornish people, especially as the Giants had inhabited Cornwall for far longer. The Saints were setting up too many crosses, claiming too many wells as holy, and collecting too many tithes from the hard won harvest of the land and sea. Therefore, the Giants held a council of war on Bodmin Moor to decide what to do about the competition. They elected Uther as their leader as he had the best brain and broadest shoulders. However, their meeting was overheard by St Tue, a rather diminutive saint, who had just claimed a well on the Moor.

St Tue decided that he needed to nip the Giant's rebellion in the bud. He therefore challenged Uther to a trial of strength; a rock throwing contest. The deal was that if the Giants won, then the Saints would leave Cornwall forever, but if the saints won the giants would convert to Christianity.

Uther was a champion rock-hurler and could throw heavy rocks with great strength and accuracy. However, his speciality was to balance bigger ones on smaller, maintaining perfect balance. The Giants couldn't believe their luck when St Tue challenged their leader to such a contest. Uther was bound to win against one so small and weak.

Twelve large rocks were gathered for the contest. Uther picked up the smallest rock and hurled it onto the summit of Stowes Hill. Then St Tue cast his eyes to heaven for divine assistance, and suddenly the heavy rock in his hand felt like a feather and it flew towards the first rock and capped it. St Tue, getting heavenly help, picked up a larger rock, and managed to throw it exactly the same distance, landing on the smaller first rock. And so the contest continued with larger rocks piling on smaller ones, until Uther failed with his last rock, and it rolled back down the hill where St Tue picked it up and hurled it (with the help of the angels) onto the top of the heap.

But the contest wasn't over yet, as the unsporting Giants argued that it was customary to have one more for luck, and that a thirteenth rock would surely clinch the deal. Uther struggled to lift the final rock, it took all his strength, but he let fly with all his might. The rock fell short, stood on end and rolled back down the hill to land at St Tue's feet. Now it was his turn! St Tue prayed silently as he tried to lift the rock. Then an angel, only visible to him, clasped the stone and bore it away to crown the top heavy Cheesewring for mortals to marvel at for evermore.

Uther promised to abandon his sinful ways and most of the others followed their leader's example. Those that didn't came to various sticky ends (see Giants pages.) The Cheesewring remains to this day as a reminder of the struggle between the Giants and the Saints in Cornwall.

Dozmary Pool

Dozmary Pool is a natural moorland lake situated to the south of Bolventor on Bodmin Moor. Once it was home of ancient man, who has left remnants of his presence in the shape of hut circles and other prehistoric remains. Local folk long believed that the strange, mysterious Pool was bottomless and had a whirlpool in the centre. It is hardly surprising, then, that it has become an integral part of two major Cornish legends.

Jan Tregeagle (see Ghosts pages), the evil disciple of the Devil was doomed to bail out the endless waters of Dozmary Pool with a leaking limpet shell for eternity, in penance for his crimes. It was into the depths of Dozmary pool, too, so legend tells us, that King Arthur's sword Excalibur or Caliburn was cast by his loyal lieutenant Sir Bedivere on the orders of the dying King. A hand and arm, clad in white samite, rose up from the surface of the lake, caught the sword and drew it underneath.

Carn Kenidjack

A long time ago, two miners were passing Carn Kenidjack one night when they saw a horseman dressed in black who invited them to watch a wrestling match. The miners accepted but soon found they had joined a crowd of frightful demons, commanded by the horseman who was the Devil in disguise. When one of the wrestling demons was thrown against a rock and injured, the miners whispered a prayer to him. The earth shook and all the demons were sucked into a black crowd, shrieking and cursing.

The Hell's Stone

The Devil had quite a lot of fun in Cornwall. One night he was flying across the sky, carrying a large stone with which to block the gate of hell. St Michael saw him and they had a great battle. The Devil dropped the stone and the spot where it fell became known as Hell's Stone or Helston. The stone itself is said to have been built into the wall of the Angel Hotel. To celebrate St Michael's victory, the local people danced through the streets and started the custom of the Furry Dance. For more about Helston, visit Graham Matthews' Helston History site.

The Spire of Towednack Church

Towednack church, not far from St Ives, has a very squat tower. the story goes that it was the devil himself who prevented the tower being taller. Apparently after each day's work by the medieval stonemasons, the devil came in the night and removed the stones that they had added that day. In the end they gave up the struggle, and capped off the tower at the low height you can see today.

Another, unrelated tradition at Towednack is the annual Cuckoo Feast on April 25th. It all goes back hundreds of years tto a man putting a log on his fire, and out flew a cuckoo from a hole in the log. He caught and kept the bird, and apparently resolved to commemorate the event with a cuckoo feast each year

Boscastle's Ghostly Bells

There are no bells in the tower of Forrabury Church, but it is said that they can be heard ringing beneath the waves where they came to rest.

Three bells were ordered by William, Lord of Bottreaux Castle, to ward off the plague in the Middle Ages. The bells never reached the church, as the ship carrying them sunk in the bay just offshore. Lord Willaim was struck by the plague and died. And the ghostly peal of the bells can still be heard when a storms sweeps across the bay.

And there are many more stories to come …