Somehow we had missed both of the famous dolmen structures in the area around Penzance on the Summer Solstice day itself. To remedy this the next morning we decided to visit Lanyon Quoit and Chun Quoit. We nearly visited the ancient village of Chysauster, but we couldn’t wait half an hour for it to open, and it was a bit drizzly still at that time of the morning. We hoped for better weather and headed off in the direction of Lanyon Quoit instead. As we moved away from the village the sun began to emerge. Another sunny day in prospect? It was almost too much to hope for given the weather predictions of supercomputers.
A series of precarious but beautiful lanes brought us to the moor road, and after some neck-craning we spotted the seemingly symmetrical and easy-to-access quoit. Energetically it was completely energetically dead. That is highly unusual for a sacred site, but we both felt we should move on the next place quickly, and so we didn’t waste any time there. On to Chun Quoit instead!
A Castle of More Than One Stone
We parked at the end of the track on the hill opposite Men-An-Tol, which we had visited the day before. Now we were diametrically opposite it, about two minutes drive away in the car from both Men-An-Tol and Lanyon Quoit. All this heritage in such a small space! Wonderful. The information sign suggested we follow the white rock to the top. There was a single white rock at the base of the hill. Er….helpful in fog, maybe, but we could see the top and the path was clear enough.
Kal stood at the bottom of the hill, hesitant. Why so slow? “I’m not going up that hill if this is going to be another of those ‘It may be a castle but actually it’s only one stone’ jobbies!” he muttered. I assured him that this was going to be a resplendent castle with amenities and a gift shop. What did he expect from a megalithic site? The weather began to match Kal’s mood and closed in around us threatening precipitation and causing waterproof layers to flap about. Were we causing the weather, or reflecting it, I wondered?
As it turned out Chun Castle is worth a visit. It was more than one stone for sure – it had an intact perimeter of stones and an inviting entrance leading through an inner ring of stones to a flat bare plateau inside. Sadly, the walls weren’t high enough to shelter from the rising wind. Would it be possible for Kal to bring out the sun today? Seemed unlikely. Let’s see!
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