The Mên-an-Tol ( Cornish: ''Men an Toll'') is a small formation of

standing stone A menhir (; from Brittonic languages: ''maen'' or ''men'', "stone" and ''hir'' or ''hîr'', "long"), standing stone, orthostat, or lith is a large upright rock (geology), stone, emplaced in the ground by humans, typically dating from the Eur ...

s in

Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...

, England (). It is about three miles northwest of

Madron Madron ( (village) or (parish)) is a civil parishes in England, civil parish and village in west Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. Madron is named after Saint Madern's Church. Its annual Trafalgar Service commemorating the death of Horatio ...

. It is also known locally as the "Crick Stone".

Location

The Mên-an-Tol stands near the Madron to

Morvah Morvah () is a civil parish and village on the Penwith peninsula in west Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The parish has a population of 49. Geography The village is centred approximately west-southwest of St Ives and north-west of Penza ...

road in

. Other antiquities in the vicinity include the

Mên Scryfa Mên Scryfa (or ''Mên Scrifa'', literally "stone with writing") is an inscribed standing stone in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom (). The inscription, dating to the early medieval period, commemorates "Rialobranus son of Cunovalus." Locatio ...

inscribed stone about 300 metres to the north and the

Boskednan stone circle Boskednan stone circle () is a partially restored prehistoric stone circle near Boskednan, around northwest of the town of Penzance in Cornwall, United Kingdom. The megalithic monument is traditionally known as the Nine Maidens or Nine Stones ...

less than 1 kilometre to the northeast.

Etymology

The Cornish name ''Men a Toll'' translates into English as "the stone with a hole".

Description

The Mên-an-Tol consists of three upright

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

stones: a round stone with its middle holed out with two standing stones to each side, in front of and behind the hole. The two side stones are both about 1.2 metres high. The westernmost stone was moved and brought into a straight line with the other two stones sometime after 1815.MEN AN TOL
Pastscape, retrieved 9 November 2013 The holed stone is roughly octagonal in outline. It is 1.3 metres wide and 1.1 metres high; the circular hole is 0.5 m in diameter. The only other holed stone in Cornwall of this type is the Tolvan holed stone which can be seen in a garden near

Helston Helston () is a town and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated at the northern end of the The Lizard, Lizard Peninsula approximately east of Penzance and south-west of Falmouth, Cornwall, Falmouth.Ordnance Survey: ...

. There is one other standing stone nearby, and six recumbent stones, some of which are buried. A

cairn A cairn is a human-made pile (or stack) of stones raised for a purpose, usually as a marker or as a burial mound. The word ''cairn'' comes from the (plural ). Cairns have been and are used for a broad variety of purposes. In prehistory, t ...

exists as a low stony mound just to the southeast. There are two other early Bronze Age barrows or cairns between 120 and 150 metres to the north.

Interpretation

The Mên-an-Tol is thought to date to either the late

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

or early

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

. The holed stone could originally have been a natural occurrence rather than deliberately sculpted. The distribution of the stones around the site has led to the suggestion that the monument is actually part of a

stone circle A stone circle is a ring of megalithic standing stones. Most are found in Northwestern Europe – especially Stone circles in the British Isles and Brittany – and typically date from the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age, with most being ...

. If so, then it is likely that the stones have been rearranged at some point, and the two standing stones either side of the holed stone may have been moved from their original positions. It has also been suggested that the holed stone could have been a capstone for the nearby cairn before being moved to its present position.

History

In 1749 the site was first archaeologically investigated by

William Borlase William Borlase (2 February 169631 August 1772), Cornish antiquary, geologist and naturalist. From 1722, he was Rector of Ludgvan, Cornwall, where he died. He is remembered for his works ''The Antiquities of Cornwall'' (1754; 2nd ed., 1769) a ...

, who also drew a plan. This shows that the megaliths were not in a line like today, but formed an angle of about 135°. Borlase also reported that farmers had taken away some stones from the area. From him comes the first written record of the myths and rituals. In the 19th Century the local antiquary

John Thomas Blight : ''For the Australian poet, see John Blight.'' John Thomas Blight FSA (27 October 1835 – 23 January 1911) was a Cornish archaeological artist born near Redruth in Cornwall, England, UK. His father, Robert, a teacher, moved the family to P ...

published several drawings of the site, and made the first suggestion that the stones could be the remains of a stone circle. In 1872

William Copeland Borlase William Copeland Borlase (5 April 1848 – 31 March 1899) was a British antiquarian and Liberal politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1880 until 1887 when he was ruined by bankruptcy and scandal. Early life Borlase was born at Cas ...

, a descendant of the earlier Borlase, gave a more detailed description of the area. In 1932 Hugh O'Neill Hencken wrote the first modern archaeological report. He believed that the position of the stones was not the prehistoric arrangement, but had been significantly changed. He also thought that the holed stone might be part of a destroyed tomb. He was even told that local farmers with back or limb complaints would crawl through the hole to relieve their pain. In 1993, the Cornwall ''Historic Environment Service'' published a detailed report with the latest research results. They suggested that the standing stones originated from a stone circle which consisted of 18 to 20 stones. The holed stone, however, could be part of a nearby portal tomb. It also possible that the holed stone stood at the center of the stone circle and served to frame specific points on the horizon. Such a use of a holed stone is not known in other sites, although the nearby stone circle of

Boscawen-Un Boscawen-Ûn () is a Bronze Age stone circle close to St Buryan in Cornwall, UK. It consists of nineteen upright stones in an ellipse with another, leaning, middle stone just south of the centre. There is a west-facing gap in the circle, which ...

does have a central standing stone.

In folklore

Mên-an-Tol is supposed to have a

fairy A fairy (also called fay, fae, fae folk, fey, fair folk, or faerie) is a type of mythical being or legendary creature, generally described as anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic, found in the folklore of multiple European cultures (including Cel ...

piskie A pixie (also called pisky, pixy, pixi, pizkie, piskie, or pigsie in parts of Cornwall and Devon) is a mythical creature of British folklore. Pixies are speculated to be particularly concentrated in the high moorland areas around Devon and Corn ...

guardian who can make miraculous cures. In one story, a

changeling A changeling, also historically referred to as an auf or oaf, is a human-like creature found throughout much of European folklore. According to folklore, a changeling was a substitute left by a supernatural being when kidnapping a human being. ...

baby was put through the stone in order for the mother to get the real child back. Evil piskies had changed her child, and the ancient stones were able to reverse their evil spell. W. Y. Evans-Wentz, (1911), ''The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries''. London: H. Frowde (Reprinted 1981 by Colin Smythe. ) p. 179). Another legend is that passage through the stone will cure a child of rickets (

osteomalacia Osteomalacia is a disease characterized by the softening of the bones caused by impaired bone metabolism primarily due to inadequate levels of available phosphate, calcium, and vitamin D, or because of resorption of calcium. The impairment of b ...

). For centuries, children with rickets were passed naked through the hole in the middle stone nine times.

Popular culture

Many of the visitors to Mên-an-Tol have their photograph taken placing their heads through the central hole. The Cornish poet

D. M. Thomas Donald Michael Thomas (25 January 1935 – 26 March 2023) was a British poet, translator, novelist, editor, biographer and playwright. His work has been translated into 30 languages. Working primarily as a poet throughout the 1960s and 1970s, ...

referred to Mên-an-Tol as "the wind's vagina". The song "Men-An-Tol" appears on the ''

Zeitgeist In 18th- and 19th-century German philosophy, a ''Zeitgeist'' (; ; capitalized in German) is an invisible agent, force, or daemon dominating the characteristics of a given epoch in world history. The term is usually associated with Georg W. F ...

'' album by the

Levellers The Levellers were a political movement active during the English Civil War who were committed to popular sovereignty, extended suffrage, equality before the law and religious tolerance. The hallmark of Leveller thought was its populism, as sh ...

. The Men-An-Tol also features prominently in the novel '' The Little Country'' by

Charles de Lint Charles de Lint (born December 22, 1951) is a Canadian writer. Primarily a writer of fantasy fiction, he has composed works of urban fantasy, contemporary magical realism, and mythic fiction. Along with authors like Terri Windling, Emma Bull ...

. "Mén-An-Tol" is the name of a level in the 2017 game '' Monument Valley 2''. "Mén-An-Tol" is a song on the 2018 album '' The Four Worlds'' by Mark Pritchard. "Men an Toll" is a piece on the 2022 Cornish language album ''Tresor'' by

Gwenno Gwenno Mererid Saunders (born 23 May 1981) is a Welsh-Cornish musician, known mononymously as Gwenno. She has released three critically acclaimed albums as a solo artist: Welsh Music Prize winner '' Y Dydd Olaf'' (2014); '' Le Kov'' (2018), her ...