West Lanyon Quoit

Within a tumulus 3 1/2 miles (by the map) N.W. by W. of Penzance, and in the parish of Madron, a Cromleh [sic] was discovered in 1790, of which the following account, by the late Rev. Malachi Hitchins, was published in the Archaeologia:-

"The gentleman who owns the estate of Lanyon, happening to be overtaken by a shower, took shelter behind a bank of earth and stones; and remarking that the earth was rich, he sent his servants to carry it off, when having removed near one hundred cart-loads, they observed the supporters of a cromleh, from which the covering stone was slipped off on the south side, but still leaning against them."

This covering-stone is about 13 1/2 feet long by 10 1/2 broad. The south supporter, on which it still leans, is 6 feet high and 5 wide: that on the west is nearly of the same height and about 9 feet wide. The east supporter (since cleft and carried away) was 10 1/2 feet wide, and , with the other two, formed almost a triangular kistvaen with a space of about a foot, at the north end, uninclosed.

"As soon as the gentleman observed it to be a cromleh, he ordered his men to dig under it, where they soon found a broken urn with ashes; and going deeper they found half a scull, the thigh bones, and most of the other bones of a human body, lying in such a manner as fully proved that the grave had been opened before, and the flat stones which formed the grave had been all removed out of their places."