Trethevy Quoit is a very popular tourist attraction and so it can be rather busy, but nowhere as busy at it can be at The Hurlers (SX 258 714), another very popular spot.
The Hurlers get their name because it is said that the three stone circles here represent the teams of Hurly players (yes, they played it in Cornwall too) who were turned to stone for playing on the Sabbath.
As mentioned above there are three stone circles here. The southernmost one is entirely flattened and every stone lies prone. The central one seems to be in the best condition and the northern most one has about half its stones still standing. Each circle is a very large 50m in diameter.
If you continue the north-south axis you can see a large rocky outcrop with many weathered rock formations on it known as The Cheesewring. This definitely acts as a focus for the monuments in the immediate area, one of which is The Pipers (SX 257 714) just a couple of hundred meters away. These are a pair standing stones (see fig. 6).
After fighting my way through the crowds eating picnics in the large car park at The Hurlers I set out for a little-visited tomb: Lesquite Quoit (SX 071 628). This is quite hard to find even when you have an OS map to refer to, because the roads here wind around so much. Eventually, after asking directions at a house, I arrived at the site. This might be little-visited, but it certainly is a little monument. That is to say that it would have been a monster before it collapsed (see fig. 7).
Two of the upright structural stones still stand. Against one of these the huge capstone rests. This is 2m x 3m in size. Each orthostat is about 1.7m tall. The views to the south are clearly aimed at the rocky tor on the hill above. As you start to travel around this part of the world and look at the monuments left to us by the Ancients you quickly start to realise that these sculptural outcrops of rock were very significant.
