Standing Stones

The Standing Stones of West Penwith

Mên Scryfa

The word menhir is Cornish for 'long stone', a standing stone (mên or meyn = stone, hir = high, long or big). There are around 75 known menhirs in West Penwith, with another 75 or so that have been destroyed and removed, mainly by landowners over time. Every few years a new menhir - buried, moved or previously unnoticed - is discovered or identified.

On this page: Longstones - Menhir Geomantics - Megalithic Locational Science - Terrestrial Alignments - Astronomical Alignments - Double Menhirs - Kemyel-Swingate - Hedge Menhirs - Treveglos Stone Row - Holed Stones - List of Menhirs - Rubbing Posts and Recent Times

For more about Penwith's standing stones, see Ian McNeil Cooke's work on menhirs.

Around 2500-2200 BCE, during the NBA (Neolithic/Bronze Age transition), sometimes called the Copper Age, big changes started taking place. Penwithian society and its culture went through a shift with the arrival of the 'Beaker package', a mixture of incoming ideas and people and a cultural change.

Trevorgans menhir

This Beaker influx, so named after a bell-shaped pot that acts as a characteristic marker of that culture, stimulated an upswing. Use of metals came, together with changes in ideas and beliefs, society and inter-tribal relations, and megalithic culture entered a new phase, giving birth to the high civilisation of the Bronze Age.

There are signs that the upswing had roots in indigenous as well as incoming influences: building menhirs and stone circles was initiated by the Late Neolithic Cornish before the incomers arrived. It had happened in Ireland and Hebridean Scotland since 2800 BCE, also in Brittany, and all the necessary ideas were already circulating.

Trelew menhir

In Cornwall the idea of the classic menhir arose around 2500 BCE. Many archaeologists would put the menhir-building upswing in Penwith to be around 2200 - that is, after the Beaker influx. The author's feeling is that it began earlier, around 2500, then to be augmented by new incoming ideas.

Locally, the menhir idea derived from the earlier practice of placing stones, propping them and digging oriented rocks into the ground in the Mid- or Late Neolithic - as outlined here. And it grew from there.

Map of Menhirs in West Penwith, Cornwall

Longstones

Boswens menhir

A menhir was an interface facilitator, a connection-enhancer between earth and heaven. Menhirs were rather masculine, upstanding objects, like Hindu lingams, intended to fecundate the earth, the feminine. The 'sperm' was cosmic energy, interacting with Earth's energy-field, the 'egg'.

By inserting an energy-conductor, a menhir, into an energy-vortex, a concentrated and amplified energy-field arises, facilitating that earth-sky connection.

Cairns and barrows were more feminine, contrasting menhirs in function. Menhirs are not found on mounds - they would cancel each other out. But mounds can be near menhirs - examples being the two large cairns at either side of the Nine Maidens stone circle, or the menhir and cairns atop nearby Watch Croft (Penwith's highest hill).

Carfury menhir

Menhirs create or amplify power points, acting like acupuncture needles in the earth. Two subtle energy orientations are involved with menhirs: horizontal fields, in the form of alignments, straight overground energy-lines and spirals, spreading out across the landscape; and vertical fields moving between deeper levels in the earth and the heavens above.

Menhirs are common throughout West Penwith. There are 74 still in existence and 75ish known to have existed but now gone. They were erected during the Bronze Age between 2500 and 1800 BCE, in likely flurries of activity inspired by the proto-druidic leadership of the time and by periodic upturns of social enthusiasm.

One of the Kemyel menhirs

There was considerable science, surveying, quarrying, transporting and landscaping involved, as well as consciousness-work and logistical and social support (food, time, people and commitment). Quarrying and transport were the most demanding and time-consuming of these.

No stone exists in isolation - it is linked with other sites and there to connect with other sites. This was no less than a whole-landscape transformation over a period of a few centuries. By 1800 BCE up to half of West Penwith was cleared of trees and a man-made landscape with a new psycho-geography was being created. In the south, the menhirs staked out the new cleared, man-made landscape.

Menhir Geomantics

Penwith's menhirs have two distinct groupings. One is in the southern half of the peninsula surrounding Boscawen-ûn and the Merry Maidens, and the other is arrayed around the upland area in the north. There are outliers, such as those at Kelynack near St Just (SW 3727 3033), Beersheba near Trencrom Hill (SW 5252 3713) and a few menhirs around Sennen.

Trevorgans menhir, near St Buryan

A menhir is a definite, precise type of site, specifically pinpointing a location. Other sites such as cairns, enclosures or stone circles take up more space and they are made to enclose spaces.

Vertically, around one third of the total length of a longstone is buried in the earth. It penetrates the earth to exert an effect on the locality, just as an acupuncture needle is inserted at a specific point to clear and energise a meridian passing through the body.

Dowsers find spirals or helixes of subtle energy winding up menhirs, usually with seven levels, four or five of which are above ground. They also find sinuous underground water and energy lines emanating outwards from menhirs, as well as spirals spreading outwards or 'breathing' in and out. Straight overground energy lines are found too, though these only sometimes coincide with alignments.

Megalithic Locational Science

Mên Scryfa

Early in the Bronze Age transition, around 2400 BCE, people became skilled in subtle energy engineering. They had learned that you can enhance and channel subtle energies and also create, change and transmit them, when conditions allowed, by a mixture of engineering and focused thought, setting up patterns that weren't there previously.

If you build a megalithic structure correctly and at the right place, it will draw energy to it or make an existing energy-trickle into a flow. You can amplify an energy-vortex or draw a nearby energy-vortex to the stone, when conditions are right.

Menhirs connect heaven and earth, and this connection would therefore fluctuate more fully and easily with astronomical and seasonal cycles. Menhirs served as conductors or transceivers. They also acted as horizontal relays connecting with other megalithic structures, with a view to augmenting the geomantic system as a whole.

Menhirs were erected for a variety of reasons, and this differs from stone to stone. Various of these factors are present or absent in the case of different menhirs.

alignments of ancient sites - ancient sites of the Bronze Age were aligned in patterns suggesting intricate relationships between sites. These are not energy-lines - they work on a different principle. Aligned monuments have a non-local relationship to do with their inherently-linked programming rather than through an energy 'pipe'. In many cases a menhir is positioned where it is because of the alignment(s) that it is staking down;
underground water and its subtle energies - many menhirs are sited on top of intersections of underground water flows or other water-related energy-points;
overground energy-leys and their patterns - menhirs are usually located at crossing points or terminals of these energy 'pipes', or they serve as relays on one energy-line only;
astronomical factors: some menhirs are involved with astronomical alignments to mark the rising and setting points of the sun, moon and perhaps stars. It could be up to 10% of cases (a guesstimate);
visual landscape setting - there is a characteristic artistry to this, in terms of the way a menhir fits into the landscape. There is an intuitive artistic elegance to the location of menhirs;
intervisibility, or the capacity to see other ancient sites from a menhir, and vice versa, creating a visual-psychic relationship between them - many but not all menhirs are intervisible (or they were so before farm hedges and other obstructions got in the way);
genius loci or spirit of place. Each ancient site has a feeling to it, a presence or a spirit. If you visit an ancient site and relax there, allowing yourself to freewheel, it isn't too difficult to sense that you have met something or that something has dropped into your psyche that wasn't there before.

Since we don't know the ancients' thoughts, we cannot know how much other factors came into play, such as myths and histories or matters of social sentiment. Each menhir seems to have three or four of the above factors applying to them, not at all uniformly, with each carrying a uniqueness and character of its own.

Terrestrial Alignments

The main terrestrial factors affecting location are:

landscape setting (visible hills, landscape vistas and the visibility of other sites);
underground water (blind springs and water line crossing points);
overground energy-lines (straight and sinuous, detectable by dowsers);
alignments with other sites.

Alignments are probably the most common way that the location of most menhirs was determined.

Menhir at Carn Eanes, above Pendeen

There are different levels of alignments big and small, and this influences the function of menhirs, mounds and other sites on them. With some exceptions, such as the Boswens, Carfury or Ennis Farm menhirs, menhirs are generally not involved in the top level of alignments, backbone alignments. But they are involved in other alignments - those marked in red on the alignments map.

Menhirs are located in between other sites, linking them and acting as nodes in the geomantic system of Penwith. They are usually not central or critical sites - they are contributory.

Some are definitely focal , with four or more alignments intersecting at them (click to see a popup map): Carfury (SW 4400 3399), Boswens (SW 4001 3290), Boskednan (SW 4338 3518), Ennis Farm (SW 4475 2821), Tresvennack Pillar (SW 4418 2787), Drift (double menhirs, SW 4371 2831), Redhouse (double menhirs, SW 4480 2663) and The NE Piper (one of two double menhirs, SW 4355 2482).

Without understanding alignments and energy-lines it is not really possible to understand why the ancients went to so much trouble to heave around stones and earth and to do what they did. The vital ingredient that gives menhirs and stone circles their significance is earth energy. There's also place memory - an imprint or trace of people and activities at each ancient site.

Astronomical Alignments

Trelew menhir (St Buryan church behind)

Some menhirs mark out astronomical alignments lining up with the rising or the setting point of the sun, the stations of the moon or perhaps with some stars.

A century ago the antiquarian Sir Norman Lockyer found a classic case when he was examining the Boscawen-ûn stone circle.

Alignment 30, the Toldavas alignment, goes from Boscawen-ûn stone circle (top left on the map below), passing through three menhirs at Chyangwens, Trelew and Toldavas, before proceeding onwards to Castallack menhir above Lamorna.

An astronomical alignment from Boscawen-ûn

The alignment, as seen from Boscawen-ûn, marks the sun's rising point at Samhain in early November and at Imbolc/Candlemas in early February. These two cross-quarter festivals mark the end and beginning of the year's growth cycle.

When looking from Boscawen-ûn, the winter solstice sun rises over Kemyel Point, just south of Castallack - it's on the left-hand side of the Lamorna Gap, as seen from Boscawen-ûn. The yellow backbone alignment from Boscawen-ûn to Kemyel Point stretches in the direction of the summer solstice sunset. Actually, it's a summer solstice alignment between two cliff sanctuaries, Cape Cornwall and Kemyel Point, and Boscawen-ûn sits exactly on it.

Three of the four circular Bronze Age enclosures (Pordenack Point, Caer Brân and Castle an Dinas) are aligned on a summer solstice alignment. As seen from Castle an Dinas, Trencrom Hill and Conquer Cairn are aligned to the rising and setting points of the sun at Beltane and Lammas.

From Mulfra Quoit, the sun rises over St Michael's Mount at summer solstice, and from Carfury menhir it rises over the Mount at Beltane and Lammas. From Chûn Quoit, the sun sets over Carn Kenidjack at winter solstice.

There are a number of known and suspected astronomical orientations in Penwith, involving quoits, chambered cairns, menhirs, stone circles and landscape features, but they have thus far been only patchily and inconsistently studied. Some of these orientations (such as those from the quoits above) go back to the Neolithic 3000s BCE.

Double Menhirs

The Pipers - part of the Merry Maidens complex

Some menhirs in the southern half of Penwith are double menhirs - paired stones, usually only 10 to 150 metres apart.

Their mutual orientation might have some significance (shown on the alignments map with green lines), but no astronomical significance has been identified, and few are terrestrially aligned except the Chyenhal menhirs, a triple set of menhirs (two now destroyed) which were aligned on St Michael's Mount. This would suggest that the relative orientation of paired stones has local reasons for being, perhaps to do with bipolar energy-vortices at the site.

With alignments heading for double menhirs, sometimes one of the menhirs takes longer-distance alignments and the other takes localised ones. They seem to act therefore as a polarity.

Drift menhirs

In some cases alignments pass between the menhirs without touching either. If double menhirs are seen as a way of fixing a polarised energy-field encompassing both menhirs, then that alignment will pass through that field, treating the polarity of the two menhirs as one field.

In Cornwall double menhirs are unique to West Penwith - otherwise, they are only found in Wales. Presumably there was an innovative megalith-builder in Penwith or Wales who set off a double menhir trend.

There are seven sets of double or triple menhirs, at Redhouse, Drift, the Faugan Stones and Chyenhal (originally triple), at The Pipers and Boscawen Rô s (in the Merry Maidens complex), and at Bunker's Hill (both now destroyed). Carfury menhir was likely a double menhir.

Kemyel-Swingate

Then there is the Kemyel-Swingate complex (SW 457 252). No one knows what this is. It is a pattern of menhirs on a plateau on the northeastern side of the Lamorna valley - robbed of context by the arrival of field boundaries.

This is a subsystem built for a specific purpose, made up of menhirs. Some were movable. They are aligned to each other in three-point alignments, of which two pairs are near-parallel - though clearly not intended to be precisely parallel.

What was this complex for? Perhaps it was experimental or educational, or it had a specialised function we might never guess. This complex needs a mathematician's attention. It is suggestive of a stellar constellation.

Castallack menhir seems to act as a junction box for the whole complex, with an astronomical alignment coming in from Boscawen-ûn and a long alignment coming from Gurnard's Head, passing through Carfury menhir and the eastern stone of the Chyenhal triple menhirs. There are clear hints of a geomantic system here.

Hedge Menhirs

Merry Maidens hedge stone

Hedge menhirs are menhirs built into hedges (walls) and behaving like menhirs, regarding underground water and alignments. They were erected in the Bronze Age, and the hedge was built much later. The stone on the photo is close to the Merry Maidens and part of its complex.

It can be difficult to judge what is a hedge menhir and what is simply a big stone inserted into a hedge at the time of its building in post-megalithic times. But a big stone will usually be laid horizontally while a hedge menhir is vertical.

Banns Farm menhir, a genuine hedge menhir

One way to check their validity is to find out whether alignments pass through them - this is how the Seal Menhir at Higher Bosistow was identified as a genuine menhir in 2017, and how the hedge menhir at Banns Farm (left), southwest of Boscawen-un stone circle, was verified.

There are also many gatepost stones in Penwith's stone hedges that look like menhirs but they are not. This can be confusing. There are, however, a few hedge gateposts that are menhirs, and a few that are suspected former menhirs that have been moved from their original location to serve as a gatepost.

When visiting a hedge menhir, imagine it without the wall adjoining it.

Treveglos Stone Row

There are plenty of stone rows in Dartmoor and Bodmin Moor. Three have been identified in Penwith, though two aren't usually regarded as stone rows - the holed stones at Tregeseal and the solstice alignment of holed stones at the Merry Maidens. The third is generally accepted as a variant of a stone row, but some doubt it. This is at Treveglos near Zennor Head.

It is a row of four upright stones, orientated at 107.5 degrees. The largest stone at the southeast end, 2.8m high, is damaged and may have been higher than three metres. The northwest stone has a prehistoric lynchet built up around it, and it is 2.37 metres high. The row is 117 metres long.

This is the only known stone row in West Cornwall. One stone row investigator reckons that at least two of the stones are from the historic, not the prehistoric period, also identifying one of the stones as an earthfast natural stone. While he does not identify this as a stone row, other archaeologists and antiquarians disagree. The jury is still out, but majority opinion in West Penwith rates Treveglos as a stone row.

Holed Stones

Merry Maidens holed stone

There are two collections of holed stones in Penwith, one at the Merry Maidens stone circle complex and the other at the Tregeseal complex - and a few single stones are also dotted around, some now destroyed. On the Penwith ancient sites map they're marked as pink diamonds.

Four of the Merry Maidens holed stones are located in a straight line (alignment 50, oriented to an azimuth of 50°). According to Cheryll Straffon in her Ancient Sites in West Penwith, they are oriented toward midwinter moonrise at the lunar maximum, which happens every 18.6 years.

Tregeseal holed stones - Carn Kenidjack summit just visible behind

The Tregeseal holed stones, which apparently had fallen and then been badly re-erected, might have pointed toward the tip of Boswens menhir. There's a possibility they were aligned toward the Isle of Scilly, visible on clear days from where they stand. This makes sense because many stone rows on Dartmoor and Bodmin Moor mark 'reveals' where the sea becomes visible from the uplands - and this is the case here.

The function of the holes is difficult to determine. If made for looking through they would probably be at the top of the stones, as at the Merry Maidens. Or perhaps making a hole in a stone was seen to energy-charge it or modify its energy-effect or even its sonic qualities. Unfortunately, the rigours of time have taken their toll on the Tregeseal stones.

Mên an Tol

Then we have that famous holed stone at Mên an Tol, which is utterly unique and difficult to interpret, not least because the stone formation of two stones on either side was created by a Victorian antiquarian, with no megalithic significance.

The site was originally a stone circle, but where or how the holed stone fitted into this, no one knows. There is a chance that Boscawen-ûn (male) and Mên an Tol (female) were paired as a polarity of stone circles.

Little definite can be said about this stone, even though it is well-known and iconic. Tradition has it that climbing through it heals various diseases such as rickets. It's a really nice stone, well crafted and well worth a pilgrimage!

There are a few other holed stones around Penwith, at Drift, Mên Frith, Redhouse and Trelew. Clearly there was a purpose to these, the most likely being for looking through or, in some way, to empower the stone.

Menhirs

Selected visitable menhirs only. Many no longer exist, or are mentioned in old records or field names, or have been destroyed or moved and therefore of uncertain original location. Also double menhirs, built as a pair (or with the Chyenhal menhirs, a triple menhir).

Banns Farm menhir. Built into a hedge. SW 4010 2638. 50.080572 -5.634231.

Beersheba menhir. SW 5252 3713. 50.182358 -5.468.

Blind Fiddler aka Trenuggo Longstone. SW 4252 2818. 50.097876 -5.601555.

Boscawen Rôs Double menhirs. Part of Merry Maidens complex. SW 4282 2394. 50.059743 -5.5947905. SW 4277 2393. 50.059743 -5.5953414.

Boscawen-ûn Hedge menhir. SW 4174 2772. 50.093278 -5.6122722.

Bosiliack hedge menhir by the side of a track to Ding Dong mine. SW 4369 3423. 50.152613 -5.5893725.

Bosistow Seal Stone hedge menhir, Higher Bosistow. Seal profile, pointing toward nearby seal caves. Found by David Giddings. SW 3653 2338. 50.052121 -5.6819630.

Boskednan menhir, aka Nine Maidens NW. Stump of menhir. Proxy menhir. SW 4338 3518. 50.160807 -5.5943835.

Boswens Menhir, a relay or proxy menhir for the Tregeseal complex. SW 4001 3290. 50.139054 -5.6399257.

Carbis Bay Longstone menhir by bus stop, Carbis Bay. SW 5304 3821. 50.192298 -5.461406.

Carfury menhir, a major hub relay menhir. Major alignment node. SW 4400 3399. 50.150603 -5.5849444.

Carn Eanes menhir. SW 3840 3374. 50.145885 -5.6629856. Menhir re-erected 1985.

Carn Lês Boel Gateway menhirs. Fallen menhir and intact propped menhir, serving as gateway stones at the entrance to the carn. SW 3569 2325. 50.050525 -5.6935417.

Castallack Carn menhir. SW 4474 2537. 50.073518 -5.5688338.

Chyangwens menhir, in hedge. SW 4186 2709. 50.087712 -5.610161.

Chyenhal E menhir. One of originally three menhirs aligned on St Micheal's Mount. SW 4506 2750. 50.092799 -5.5658353.

Drift menhirs aka the Sisters, double menhir. SW 4371 2831. 50.099464 -5.58517.

Ennis Farm menhir. SW 4475 2821. 50.099015 -5.5705902.

Faugan Stones. Double menhirs at Faugan Round, could be bronze or Iron Age. SW452282. 50.099117 -5.564304.

Gûn Rith menhir. SW 4294 2447. 50.064663 -5.593334. Part of Merry Maidens complex.

KEMYEL-SWINGATE Collection of varying menhirs on Lamorna plateau. | SW 4587 2458. | 50.066910 -5.552549.

Kerris menhir. SW 4439 2742. 50.091768 -5.575085.

Kerrow Bosullow menhir in wall. SW 4145 3425. 50.151800 -5.6207315.

Kerrowe menhir, with two nearby round huts. SW 4523 3732. 50.180992 -5.569981.

Mayon menhir, Sennen. SW 3578 2595. 50.074775 -5.6941520.

Mên Scryfa Inscribed standing stone, likely a Bronze Age menhir carved upon in Iron Age times. SW 4269 3529. 50.161732 -5.6041035.

Pipers Double menhir (might have been triple). NE menhir is the largest extant menhir in Cornwall. Part of Merry Maidens complex. SW 4355 2482. 50.067867 -5.585746.

Pridden The Pridden Stone, menhir. SW 4165 2660. 50.083455 -5.6121518.

Redhouse NE Double menhir. SW 4480 2663. 50.084854 -5.5688376. SW 4476 2658. 50.084584 -5.56881.

St Levan's Stone menhir in churchyard. SW 3803 2219. 50.042057 -5.660237.

Toldavas menhir. SW 4266 2671. 50.084648 -5.598745.

Tregaminion menhir, fallen, discovered and re-erected in 2019 excavations. SW 4012 3583. 50.165411 -5.6403331.

Trelew Longstone, menhir. SW 4217 2691. 50.086411 -5.605728.

Tremenheere menhir, re-erected. SW 4901 3296. 50.143370 -5.5143290.

Treryn Dinas menhir, recently restored, reported to be at exact correct location. SW 3985 2241, 50.04472 -5.63518.

Tresvannack Pillar menhir. SW 4418 2787. 50.095717 -5.578317.

Trevean 1 Propped menhir in hedge/wall. SW 3632 2296. 50.04822 -5.68452.

Trevean 2 Likely menhir, near springs. SW 3646 2289. 50.047657 -5.6826022.

Treverven menhir. SW 4082 2399. 50.059516 -5.622855.

Trevorgans menhir, fractured at the top, suggesting it was formerly higher. SW 4049 2613. 50.078517 -5.628623.

Trink Hill Giew Mine menhir, aka Trink Hill menhir. SW 502 3714. 50.181135 -5.500359.

Try menhir. SW 4597 3498. 50.160307 -5.5580744.

Watch Croft menhir. SW 4207 3568. 50.164905 -5.613039.

Stone Row

Row of menhirs. Only one known case exists in West Penwith.

Treveglos Treveglos stone row, Zennor. SW 4539 3888 to SW 4528 3891. 50.195050 -5.5686756 to 50.195287 -5.5703470. | A row of four upright stones, orientated 107.5 degrees. The largest stone at the SE end, 2.8m high, damaged by splitting and may have exceeded 3.0m – now serves as a gatepost. The NW stone has a prehistoric lynchet built up around it, height of 2.37m. The row is 117m long. Other stones possibly existed but have been robbed for use in the field hedges or as gateposts. The only known stone row in West Cornwall. Its classification as a stone row is disputed but the consensus in Penwith is favourable.

Holed Stones

Bronze age stones with holes bored through.

Mên an Tol Holed stone. Iconic. Originally part of a stone circle at the site. SW 4242 3499. 50.158864 -5.6076817.

Redhouse Holed stone. SW 4473 2668. 50.085272 -5.5698475.

Rosmodress Six holed stones, two of them documented and now missing. Part of Merry Maidens complex. SW 42772421. 50.062257 -5.5955295 (in hedge). SW 4315 2450. 50.065024 -5.5904255. SW 4326 2457. 50.065700 -5.5889386. SW 4365 2489. 50.068740 -5.5837145 (in farm wall). SW 4354 2449. 50.065103 -5.5849805 (reported by Borlase). SW 4353 2449. 50.065098 -5.5851200 (reported by Russell in 1971).

Tregeseal Five holed stones with holes central in flattish oblong stones. Not clear whether they are in their original precise locations. Their purpose is a debate and mystery. Might have been a stone row. SW 3901 3261. 50.136012 -5.6536922.

Trelew Farm Holed stone. SW 41922680. 50.085135 -5.609128.

A rubbing stone at Bosiliack - not a menhir

A cattle rubbing stone at Bosiliack - not a menhir

Recent Times

In Penwith, not all menhir-like stones are Bronze Age menhirs. Plenty of gateposts and cattle rubbing stones have been set up by farmers. They can look like menhirs, but they aren't.

Generally, a rubbing stone is roughly the height of a cow, while most menhirs are higher or lower. A way of verifying it is to dowse it, and check whether it is aligned with other sites. If these are lacking or weak, the chances are that it's not a menhir.

Some menhirs have been moved by farmers, especially since the advent of tractors. Some have been incorporated as gateposts or re-erected in a more convenient place (to farmers), as if moving them made no difference to their properties. Other menhirs have been destroyed out of thoughtlessness, for convenience or with malintent. Their original sites are usually found through examining antiquarians' records, the testimony of old people or photos, field investigation, field names, archaeological judgement and dowsing.

Rubbing stone near West Lanyon Quoit - cattle height

Then there's the question of landscape setting. The pattern of fields and man-made features built after the megalithic period distorts our perception of menhirs - they have lost the setting and centrality they once had. Some are located in hedges (walls), while others sit in the middle of fields built a long time after the menhirs were erected.

Menhirs have been decontextualised by land-use changes throughout history. We do not know what the original landscapes they once stood in looked like, though some guesswork is possible. Much of the land was not intensely farmed, much of it being parkland with woods and coppices. When you visit ancient sites, try to dissolve the walls and fields to visualise a menhir's original possible landscape situation. It is difficult to know what role trees played in the visual landscape surrounding each standing stone, but it is likely that most menhirs had vistas kept open around them.

NEXT: Stone Circles

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