Trink Hill

Also known as:
Twelve o'clock stone
Nearest town:
St Ives (3km NNE)
OS reference:
SW50483715
OS sheet:
203
Latitude:
50° 10' 51.9 N
Longitude:
5° 29' 43.9 W
Added to TMA by

Images

Image of Trink Hill (Round Barrow(s)) by thesweetcheat

Trink Hill from the NE. The barrow is on the highest part, Twelve O’Clock Rock (see folklore) can be seen prominently on the left (southeast) slopes of the hill.

Image credit: A. Brookes (21.6.2014)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Aug 17, 2014
Image of Trink Hill (Round Barrow(s)) by thesweetcheat

Interestingly wavy-edged slab of granite on the barrow, quite large too.

Image credit: A. Brookes (21.6.2014)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Aug 17, 2014
Image of Trink Hill (Round Barrow(s)) by thesweetcheat

Looking SW across the barrow. The tor enclosure/hill fort of Trencrom can be seen in the middle distance, with Tregonning Hill (another hillfort) directly behind. Mounts Bay over to the right, the Lizard stretches away to the horizon.

Image credit: A. Brookes (21.6.2014)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Aug 17, 2014
Image of Trink Hill (Round Barrow(s)) by thesweetcheat

Midsummer’s Day, Trink Hill barrow. Looking NW towards St Ives Bay and Godrevy.

Image credit: A. Brookes (21.6.2014)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Aug 17, 2014
Image of Trink Hill (Round Barrow(s)) by thesweetcheat

Overgrown Trink Hill barrow, looking NE. Trendrine Hill and Rosewall Hill (both with cairns) can be seen far right.

Image credit: A. Brookes (21.6.2014)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Aug 17, 2014

Articles

Trink Hill

chris s
chris s Dec 6, 2007

Twelve O’Clock Rock (as it is named on the OS sheets) also somewhat dominates the skyline eastward across St. Ives Bay, and despite its relatively diminutive size, can easily be picked out from the barrow at Godrevy, over 9km away.

Folklore

Trink Hill
Round Barrow(s)
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Dec 6, 2007

Hunt quotes O Halliwell’s ‘Rambles in Western Cornwall, by the Footsteps of the Giants’ – the giants were always entertaining themselves with ‘bob buttons’ and other ball games using rocks.

“Doubtlessly the Giant’s Chair on Trink Hill was frequently used during the progress of the game, nor is it improbable that the Giant’s Well was also in requisition. Here, then, were at hand opportunities for rest and refreshment--the circumstances of the various traditions agreeing well with, and, in fact, demonstrating the truth of each other.”

- at the Sacred Texts Archive
sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/prwe/prwe009.htm

Folklore

Trink Hill
Round Barrow(s)
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Oct 29, 2006

This is apparently about the same stone:

Numbers of people would formerly visit a remarkable Logan stone, near Nancledrea, which had been, by supernatural power, impressed with some peculiar sense at midnight. Although it was quite impossible to move this stone during daylight, or indeed by human power at any other time, it would rock like a cradle exactly at midnight. Many a child has been cured of rickets by being placed naked at this hour on the twelve-o’clock stone. If, however, the child was “misbegotten,” or, if it was the offspring of dissolute parents, the stone would not move, and consequently no cure was effected.

On the Cuckoo Hill, eastward of Nancledrea, there stood, but a few years since, two piles of rock about eight feet apart, and these were united by a large flat stone carefully placed upon them,--thus forming a doorway which was, as my informant told me, “large and high enough to drive a horse and cart through.” It was formerly the custom to march in procession through this “doorway” in going to the twelve-o’clock stone.

The stone-mason has, however, been busy hereabout; and every mass of granite, whether rendered notorious by the Giants or holy by the Druids, if found to be of the size required, has been removed.

From: Popular Romances of the West of England
collected and edited by Robert Hunt
[1903, 3rd edition]
Online at the excellent Sacred Texts Archive
sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/prwe/index.htm

Folklore

Trink Hill
Round Barrow(s)
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Oct 29, 2006

The OS map shows a ‘tumulus’ on Trink Hill (though it is not marked as scheduled on the Magic map) and close by, the Twelve O’clock Stone.

The sun strikes the flank of the Trink Hill “Twelve o’clock” stone, for example, using it as a dial; hence its name. When the stone “hears” cock-crow it turns itself; and would turn just as well as do others, in response to church bells or a striking clock, if it were within “hearing” of them. It is this stony “hearing” that has become a joke.

Oh do lighten up. It’s only a story. From
The Stone Circles of Cornwall
B. C. Spooner
Folklore, Vol. 64, No. 4. (Dec., 1953), pp. 484-487.

Sites within 20km of Trink Hill

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