Carwynnen Quoit

"There is present little doubt amongst antiquaries with respect to the originall Cromlech; it is generally believed to be a sepulchral monument used by the Druids to mark the places of interment of the Druid chief or such princes as were favourable to their order" John Greig 1808A couple of Sundays ago I went for a walk with my sister and neices to Carwynnen Quoit on the outskirts of Troon and on the edge of the Pendarves estate. It was a beautifully mellow late Autumn afternoon and the woods were copper and golden with pathways of deeply fallen leaves and guilded with rays of sun through the branches. I love these woods. They seem very old and are full of earth works possibly from mining, but the area itself is full of fascinating history from the 19th century hamlet of Treslothan to the ancient hut circles on Copper Hill recorded by Charles Thomas.This quoit can easily be approached from the road from Troon to Carwynnen and is discovered at the bottom of a gated field.Known as the Giants Quoit, it has also been called 'The Devil's Frying Pan' set in what was known in old tithe records as 'Frying Pan Field'. The quoit is now being preserved by the Sustainable Trust who hope to resurrect it and the land in which it reposes. Old photos on an information board at the site show a picnic around a capstoned quoit very much like Lanyon Quoit in West Penwith. The quoit is Neolithic (3,500-2,500BC).The capstone of this tomb once stood on three supports and was 1.5m high. It collapsed in 1834, was rebuilt and then fell again in 1967. It has remained collapsed ever since.It is difficult to seethat it is a quoit as it looks more like a pile of boulders but if one looks more closely one can see the capstone beneath two former support stones and a third beneath.A meeting of the Camborne branch of the Old Cornwall Society was held at the stones in the summer of 1925 and the Bards of the Cornish Gorseth held their annual gathering at the quoit in 1948.

When we visited we shared our time with a resident horse who was very protective of his patch and rather too friendly so we didn't stay long as none of us were terribly confident with being followed quite so closely.
John Harris, a major 19th century poet, was a miner who loved to walk in the Pendarves area. He is buried at Treslothan Churchyard with his beloved daughter Lucretia.

"Our curious cromlechs! Let no hand of man
Destroy these stony prophets which the Lord
Has placed upon the tarns and sounding downs
With tones for distant ages."
'Destruction of the Cornish Toman' by John Harris