[visted 08/07/07] I have been a sucker for any rock art in wessexish ever since I saw a lot up north a few years back. It is however very rare about these parts and so I headed over to see this without high hopes. Sadly I completely failed to find a cup on this otherwise purty little stone. There are a couple of small depressions, but nothing I could positively say had been created by man.
Moving on, this somewhat misnamed stone comes up to about waist height nowadays and reminded me of the West Anstey Longstone. It is an absolute peach of a location overlooking the Bristol Chanel, Wales clearly visible in the distance. Also clearly visible is Hinkley Point Nuclear Power Station, or as we like to think, the Pixies Mound. Can't really say about the orientation though as it was re-erected in the 60s.
Access is for the fitish but is all footpaths and would be doable in a wheelchair that could handle reasonably rough ground and steep slopes. Feeling energetic I made it up there in 25 mins, about a third at a slow run, and back down in 15mins, running mostly. Walking would prolly take 30 mins mostly all up hill. The effort to reward ratio is quite high on this one!
(ST 14034065). Long Stone (BS) (NAT). (1) The Long Stone. A prostrate stone on a ridge called after it Longstone Hill. It is 4' 8" long, 17" wide, and so far as can be seen 8" thick. It tapers slightly and seems to have been squared. It appears to be an ancient boundary stone, but not prehistoric. (2) The only possible early example of a standing stone on the Quantocks is the Longstone at ST 142406. This was for many years recumbent but was re-erected by the Friends of Quantock in the 1960s. In the writers opinion it is unlikely to have been erected before medieval times. (The map reference mistakenly refers to an adjacent spot height). (3)
The Long Stone lies on the eastern slopes of Longstone Hill, at ST 1403 4066. The stone is an undressed rectangular slab of local sandstone, measuring 80x36x23cm. The slab has been squared off, and it tapers slighly at the top. No inscriptions are visible, but on the NE face is a sharp, incised circle 1cm in diamater which appears to be of fairly recent origin, and several lines have been scored on the sides of the stone. The Long Stone is likely to be a prehistoric standing stone, but it also functioned as a medieval or post-medieval boundary stone. It marks the boundary between the parishes of Kilve and East Quantoxhead. The stone was recorded using differential GPS as part of the EH survey of the Quantocks AONB (4) .
The Long Stone is aptly sited on Longstone Hill, on the boundary of Kilve and East Quantoxhead parishes. It's said to be 4ft 8ins 'long', 17" wide, and 8" thick. Grinsell says it lay recumbent for many years before being reerected by the Friends of Quantock in the 60s. He wasn't convinced that it was any older than medieval, but another visitor surveying the stone in the 80s mentioned a possible cup mark on the NE side, angling for a Bronze age date.
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