Men Gurta: Cornwall's Largest Monolith

Men Gurta – or St Breock Longstone – is Cornwall’s largest monolith. It is 16ft high and stands near the top of the St Breock Downs, but although it is huge it isn’t that easy to find as it is a little way off an unclassified road to Rosenannon and is somewhat obscured by gorse bushes. If you are looking for it, it is just past a wind farm and down a track on the opposite side of the road. The views from the spot over the surrounding countryside are lovely

The standing stone probably dates to the late Neolithic to mid-Bronze Age (about 2500-1500 BC) and was much later used as a parish boundary marker. Apparently Men Gurta means The Waiting Stone. I don’t know a great deal about its history apart from that, or what it is supposed to be waiting for, but I have been recommended a book called Standing Stones of Land’s End: An Enquiry into Their Function.

Men Gurta is managed by English Heritage, but there is no charge to visit it and there is open access at all times.

Links and previous related posts
http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/st-breock-downs-monolith/history/
http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=6333309
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2012/08/pagan-eye-hurlers-stone-circles.html

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