15 replies to this topic

[David333]

Just to say hello to you all!!!
....Whoever it was who set fire to
Meyn tol and Lanyon quoit, you will pay!!!!
Anybody feel like emailing can do so!!!
    Take care!!!!!!!!BB

[Bill Greer]

David333:
Haven't they caught the fool yet? I believe I read that the person who fired Men-an-Tol had made himself semi-public with a letter to the local paper.
Last summer my wife and I were sickened by the spray painting on the Avenue at Avebury. Have those vandals been caught or identified yet?
What kind of mind is it that thinks such an act makes a useful political statement?

[Edited by Bill Greer (06-05-2000 at 13:45).]

[Diego]

Cornish police has recently arrested two young males in connection with the burning of the Men-an-tol and Lanyon Quoit.
They appeared before the magistrates charged with arson. Sadly they are local lads, one from St Buryan and the other from Pendeen.

[Shropshire Traveller]

...and has been said on the Stones list, they will have earned enough contempt for locals as punishment, too. If curses actually work, I expect some curses have been placed upon them too.

I just don't understand why the lads had to do it. I can't think of a rude enough word to describe them.

[Gunnar Creutz]

Well, one can never understand why some people have to destroy ancient sites. Here in my area in Sweden the most problems are with some farmers who want to get rid of the passages graves on their land without paying for an excavation. Some farmers are only interested into getting some more arable land to cultivate.

One farmer in Luttra parish just outside Falköping (there I live) is said to have stopped destroying a passage grave only when his neighbours told him ghost-stories about people who hade died when they robbed graves. I don't think that the farmer believes in ghosts, but I think he realised that his neighbours was tempted to do nasty things to him if he didn't stop destroying the passage grave.

Well, what an idea! I will make a list of local people to curse! Double, double toil and trouble; *evil grin*

Gunnar

[rob r]

That's nothing, what about the religion crazed idiot who burned most of Avebury years and years ago. Bastard!

Ps  What exactly is the damage to Men-an-tol? i went there two years ago, is it utterly destroyed or what?

[Gunnar Creutz]

If a farmer remove a passage grave using plough or caterpillar it actually do more harm to the site than if someone just burn the stones. If burned the surface of the stones will crack, and the stones starts to look really ugly, but they are mostly still there. If the site is removed by a caterpillar, then they are gone forever.
But of course it is more crazy to set fire to a site out of religious hysteria.

Oh, that remindes me to add the farmer, who some years ago burned the grass upon the Fredriksberg passage grave just outside Falköping, to my list of local persons to curse. I think the reason for burning was just a fast way to shorten the grass on the site. Actually that burning did no visible harm at all to the passage grave.

Gunnar

[Edited by Gunnar Creutz (13-05-2000 at 09:12).]

[Diego]

You can find the latest info on the burning of Men-an-Tol and Lanyon quoit in our Archaeo News no.10. Here is an excerpt:
Cheryl Straffon, a member of Penwith Council's Sacred Sites Committee, confirmed that the stones were indeed badly damaged on November 5 1999 and that the incident had been reported to the Cornwall Archeological Unit, English Heritage and the National Trust. She said that "Something did occur on November 5 at the Men-an-Tol and discovered the next day. It looks as if resin of some sort has been poured over the holed stone and an attempt made to set it alight."
When a Cornishman reporter visited the Lanyon Quoit he found three of the upright supports badly burnt by a blackened substance and the huge roof stone also blacked and covered in a sticky mess of black and white gunge.
A geologist said that any damage is likely to have affected the surface 1/2 inch or so at most, but that's bad enough. It is possible that the flammable material could have penetrated cracks in the stone and caused deeper damage because the stone is so weathered. Of course we won't know the real extent of the damage until the residue coating the stone has been removed.

Are there any Cornish readers? Please let us know if there are any news!

[Tristan]

Well yesterday, me and my family saw an idiot sitting on top of Lanyon quoit and he said he was connecting with the spirits!! we had already connected with the spirits by touching the supporting stones and mum said that he would never get good luck again. She also said that if she wasn't a druid, she would have cursed him.

[Awen Evenstar]

Thanks Tristan! Yes, Lanyon Quoit being one of the better known sites, gets a lot of visitors. I would imagine mostly in the summer, seeing as Cornwall is a holiday destination. It upset us greatly to discover an ADULT climbing and sitting on the capstone! There was a lady there with 4 children who were playing among the Dolmen as if that wasn't bad enough. Then to find an arrogant chap like that claiming he was 'connecting' in the way he knew how! A good thing we don't all do that, as I pointed out to him. What I would be interested to know, is what these type of people would do if the monument collapsed on someone and killed them because people like him kept climbing onto them and sitting there. If these people have no respect for these wonderful sites left by our ancestors, I just wish they would stay away from them

If anyone intends to visit Lanyon Quoit, I would suggest you make it your first port of call, preferably early in the morning where you are more likely to get it to yourself and not be upset by disrespectful 'visitors'...in the summer at least. I think the Young Tribe may visit next time in the winter months

[nouveaugoddess]

thats terrible...what do these people think they are doing ??? l was at the Lanyon Quoit on the 4th of November in 1999 !!!! Had l been there the next day......( right now a lot of swear words are coming to mind so l'l just leave a blank space  ).....................................................
Some people.....makes you want to bring back the guillotine !! "" off with their hands...."



sorry about the rant...we're having problems at home with vandals spray painting private property and burning down peoples fences......

[Amberle]

Nobody has the right to sit on ancient sites, particularly as Lanyon Quoit has already fallen once! It doesn't need people to sit up on top of it!

[traveller]

I totally agree with all that’s been said on the disrespect towards our great sites. It seems to be a theme now in everyday life, that there will always be a small minority who has to spoil it for everyone else. Just because they don’t understand things or aren’t interested, they think its fun to spoil or destroy them.

On visiting sites, I again always try to see them very early in the morning, light permitting, or just before the sun sets. That way if you do come across anyone, they will only be there for the same reason as you.

[Tristan]

Gunnar Creutz, on 11 May 2000, 23:16, said:

Well, one can never understand why some people have to destroy ancient sites. Here in my area in Sweden the most problems are with some farmers who want to get rid of the passages graves on their land without paying for an excavation. Some farmers are only interested into getting some more arable land to cultivate.

One farmer in Luttra parish just outside Falköping (there I live) is said to have stopped destroying a passage grave only when his neighbours told him ghost-stories about people who hade died when they robbed graves. I don't think that the farmer believes in ghosts, but I think he realised that his neighbours was tempted to do nasty things to him if he didn't stop destroying the passage grave.

Well, what an idea! I will make a list of local people to curse! Double, double toil and trouble; *evil grin*

Gunnar

And the Farmers just want to make money, don't they?