Lanyon Quoit and Ding Dong Mine
by Terri Waters
Title
Lanyon Quoit and Ding Dong Mine
Artist
Terri Waters
Medium
Photograph
Description
A digitally enhanced image of Lanyon Quoit in Cornwall.
Lanyon is one of a number of quoits remaining in Cornwall. These sites were probably designed as repositories for the bones of the dead, whose bodies may have been laid out on the capstones for the carrion birds to remove the flesh, a practice known as excarnation.
Lanyon Quoit is perhaps the best known and most photographed of any of Cornwall's prehistoric monuments but it also unfortunately one of the least authentic.
It originally dated from the early Neolithic period (3500-2500 BC) and consisted a large capstone 5.3m (17ft) long and 2.7m (9ft) wide on 4 upright support stones.
However, in 1815 it collapsed in a storm and some stones were fractured, so that when it was re-erected in 1824 (at right angles to its original position) the capstone was placed on only 3 uprights which were shortened and squared off. It is thus much lower than before, and does not retain the distinctive rectangular box-like appearance of other Quoits.
Ding Dong tin mine lies in an old and extensive mining area situated in the parish of Madron, in West Penwith.
It is an ancient tin mine, reputed to be one of the oldest mines in Cornwall, and the area is said to have been worked for tin as far back as Roman times. It is one of several lodes worked in a large tract of land between Lanyon farm and Mulfra hill. There still are many shafts, ruined mine buildings and quite extensive dumps left on the south and south-east slopes of Nine Maidens Cairn.
Uploaded
September 28th, 2013
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