Zennor Quoit

Zennor Cromlech was lately very nearly being transformed into another and very different kind of habitation to that intended by its original constructors. The following paragraph appeared in the Cornish Telegraph of Sept. 4th, 1861: 'Zennor Quoit, one of our local antiquities, has recently had a narrow escape. It consists of seven stones, one of which is a large granite slab which lies in a slanting position against the tallest of the uprights. A farmer had removed a part of one of the upright pillars, and drilled a hole into the slanting quoit, in order to erect a cattle-shed, when news of the Vandalism reached the ears of the Rev. W. Borlase, vicar of Zennor, and for five shillings the work of destruction was stayed, -- the vicar having thus strengthened the legend that the quoit cannot be removed.

[...] an additional interest attaches to Zennor Quoit since it has obtained the distinction of being that English cromlech which has had the narrowest escape of being converted into a cattle-shed. It is quite curious to note the commencement of the process of transformation in the newly-drilled holes in the venerable blocks of granite. To what base uses we may return, Horatio!

But even as it is, this cromlech has been so greatly injured since the time of Borlase, it has lost much of its interest. Of the six supporters mentioned by that writer, three only remain quite upright, two others nearly so, while the sixth has been broken into two pieces, and the covering stone has fallen down on one end. Scarcely any traces remain of the stone barrow which once surrounded the cromlech. The whole monument is on a gigantic scale, the top-stone measuring about fourteen yards in circumference, and some of the supporting stones being much larger than I have ever observed in similar erections. This cromlech is also called by the country people the Giant's Quoit.