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bladup wrote: Interesting that the corner of the capstone on the bottom photo- http://ancient-cornwall.wikidot.com/hiac:zennor-quoit is well clear of the floor, it's now below it, do you think the capstones slipped down more, or that more cairn material has gone since the photo or the ground has risen???
I would think a bit of both Paul seems the most likely. Almost for certain (but of course with no actual proof as usual) the cairn material which seems to have been purely lumps of granite would heve prevented it sliding down further, but once removed.....
Which brings me to the cairn on this quoit and the other equally iconic ones. The text beneath the old photo mentions the quoit as being completely covered at one stage. How likely was that? If the lid was up high as in Borlase's drawing then the cairn material would ingress into the tomb surely? Borlase says it formed a 14 yard ring around it and 'almost reached the edge of the quoit' which suggests it never went further because if you were nicking stones you'd remove it from the exterior first surely?
The text:-
'A mid-Victorian photographic view of Zennor Quoit illustrating the relative size of the left hand upright at the front of the cromlech on the right hand side of this image. William Copeland Borlase, writing in Nænia Cornubiæ of the appearance of the monument in the time of William Borlase, ponders that "In all probability it had been freshly disinterred from its cairn, or rather the gigantic structure had just succeeded in shaking off, or piercing up through, the crust of loose dèbris which had been piled over it; for in the last century, "a stone barrow, fourteen yards in diameter, was heaped round it, and almost reached to the edge of the quoit." Care had been taken, however, in the erection, that no stone should get into the chamber, and it was with great difficulty that a man could squeeze himself into it." A thought, no doubt, which might also have crossed the mind of the gentleman shown in this photograph'. Image courtesy of and © Cornwall Record Office.
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