Trethevy Quoit
Trethevy Quoit is a well-preserved megalithic structure between St Cleer and Darite in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is known locally as "the giant's house". Standing high, it consists of five standing stones capped by a large slab and was added to the Heritage at Risk Register in 2017.
Location
Trethevy Quoit is north of Liskeard in the hamlet of Tremar Coombe. Nearby Trethevy farmhouse is a Grade II* listed building. Nearby are The Hurlers, three stone circles dating from the late Bronze Age. The site is owned and managed by the Cornwall Heritage Trust on behalf of English Heritage.Construction
Like other portal structures of this type, Trethevy Quoit was originally covered by a mound. The remnants of this suggest a diameter of. The remaining seven stones and the long and 10.5-ton cover slab were inside the mound. At the upper end of the cover slab is a natural hole, which may have been used for astronomical observation. The group of horizontal stones is composed of a fallen back wall, two overlapping side wall stones, a front stone and a somewhat remote flanking stone. The special feature of Cornish portal graves is that by such stones sometimes a smaller partially closed area is created before the front end. Some stones have hole-like perforations as decoration. The front stone is often called an entrance stone, although in most portal structures this can not be moved. Trevethy Quoit is a rare exception here, because a small rectangular stone moving at the bottom right of the front allows access to the chamber, which is now opened only very rarely.The back of the chamber has collapsed inwards and now forms a pile inside the chamber. Erect, this stone would be about the height of the front stone, so that the cover slab would not have once been held up by the side stones, but rested almost horizontal solely on the front stone and rear walls. However, there would have been a considerable gap between the support stones and the side walls, by which soil could have penetrated into the chamber. It is therefore likely that the collapse of the rear wall and the falling of the cover slab damaged the side stones. In November 2017 the quoit was added to Historic England's Heritage at Risk Register, because of damage caused by fencing and increasing erosion by livestock.