Work to rebuild a collapsed ancient Cornish monument has been completed on the day of the summer solstice.
Carwynnen Quoit, or Giant’s Quoit, a 5,000-year-old burial chamber near Troon, collapsed in 1966.
The burial chamber had fallen apart but, with help from archaeologists, it is standing proud once again.
Replacing the capstone was the last piece of work carried out by owners the Sustainable Trust, which bought the site in 2009.
Leading architect on the project, Jacky Nowakowski said: “It’s a magical moment to get to this stage in the project.
“I feel exhilarated to bring the capstone home and make the monument complete again.
“A lot of people have come together to bring an ancient monument back to life, so today’s a real celebration of that amazing achievement.”
The ancient granite monument is believed to date as far back as the Neolithic period.
The Cornwall Sustainable Trust and Cornwall Heritage Trust employed professional archaeologists to help research and rebuild it.
Initial work saw two support stones replaced in their original Neolithic footings but the third stone had to be adjusted to comply with health and safety regulations.
The main capstone measuring 3.3m (11ft) long, 2.5m (8ft) wide and 30cm (1ft) thick was dropped into position by a large crane.
According to the trust, Carwynnen Quoit is among 12 similar monuments around the county.
Actually Jackie Nowakowski was the lead archaeologist on the project.
However it would not have succeeded without the dogged perseverance of Pip Richards, the Director of the Sustainable Trust. The Sustainable Trust bought the site and it was our project to restore the quoit with the invaluable help of a lot of wonderful people, including lots of community involvement. We had a lot of very happy amateur diggers carrying out the preparatory archaeological digs, often in lousy weather, under the expert supervision of professionals, such as Jackie and James Gossip. We have some other things to do as part of the overall project, but it is great to have the quoit back up.
BTW I'm the chairman of the Sustainable Trust.
Andy, could you possibly email me your contact details – thanks.
Hi Andy, Congratulations for what has been achieved. Been following the progress via the news, and wished that we had both been there when the capstone was replaced, it looked as if there were plenty of people to witness it.
There is something to be said for community spirit and people coming together to make better a rather sad fallen quoit, the grass will grow soon and now the field will become the sanctuary both for the flora and the cromlech..
There were about 500 - 600 people there to see the cap stone go back on. The atmosphere was brilliant - there was singing, including a ballad specially written about the quoit - and Cornish dancing. Once the lid was on there was surge of people who just had to touch it. What an interetsing response!
I didn't do that much myself, lots of others deserve the congratulations, but it is great to see the quoit back up.