Trethevy Quiot, nr St Cleer, Cornwall
Trethevy Quoit is a large Neolithic burial chamber. This type of chamber is called a Portal Dolmen. The site is known locally as 'The Giant's House'. It is considered to be the best preserved quoit (burial chamber) in Cornwall and one of the most impressive of its type in Britain. Trethevy has been translated from Cornish to mean 'place of the graves'. It is a chamber made of large stone slabs, with a massive capstone, set in a low mound. The monument is about 2.7 metres high and lies on top of a low stony mound or cairn. This may have been substantially larger in the past. The monument is mentioned by John Norden in an antiquarian record of 1584. Portal Dolmen type burial chambers have been shown through excavation to have been constructed in the early and middle Neolithic period between 3700-3300 BC. They were used by people over a long time as communal tombs to house the bones of their ancestors. This site is now in the care of English Heritage (2010). Find out more
