Two quoits on the moor

A black-and-white photo of a grassy field with scattered rocks and a large stone structure in the center. The landscape extends to distant hills under a cloudy sky.

03. 06. 2025

Up from a curving road I take a track through new foxgloves and old bluebells. Soft ferns caress my legs but the gorse wants me gone.

The breeze hits me atop a carn with no name. From blue sea to the north, then west, then south I scan around me and see the outline of an old tin mine.

I head to the engine house past fern covered mine shafts, then to a rocky outcrop of weathered sculpted stone and beyond there, the ruinous remains of Sperris Quoit.

A single upright stands like a gravestone amongst the fallen four with a long since grounded capstone prostrate and beyond repair. Who laid here, miner or master ?

A grassy landscape with large rocks and ferns, with a hill and rock formations in the background under a cloudy sky.
A grassy moorland with a large upright standing stone surrounded by smaller stones and ferns, with rolling hills in the distant background.
Close-up of a rocky ground surface with lichen and small patches of moss.

I glance up and there ahead a frozen giant. I wend my way to five hefty uprights and a blocking stone no longer willing to hold the mega capstone now slipped and angled down.

Before the portal four pillars stand, their purpose lost in time. I peer into the damp dark chamber with no entry beyond the granite blocks.

So this is Zennor Quoit, where over time, consumed in the dark centre, a mingle of ancient bones lay waiting their decay.

Large gray rocks with moss and lichen, green ferns, and grass at the base, under a cloudy sky.
Animal footprints in dirt with sparse grass and lichen.
A small, flat rock inside a narrow, rocky crevice with soil and smaller stones on the ground.
Large weathered stones on a grassy field under a cloudy sky, with smaller stones and a stone fence in the background.
Ancient stone formation with large boulder leaning against a smaller one and standing stones nearby, set in grassy landscape with blue sky and clouds.