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Tremenheere
St Keverne |
Kerrier
NGR: SW77769 21044 |
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The settlement of Tremenhere is first recorded in AD 1312 but it is
likely to be much older with origins before the Norman Conquest. The
name is Cornish and translates as Standing Stone Farm - 'tre' is the
Cornish word for a farmstead, and 'men-hyr' means ‘long-stone’. The
name refers to the standing stone which lies in the field 200m to
the north-east of the settlement and which is still known locally as
the Long Stone. It was described by the antiquarian WC Borlase
in 1872 as a thin wedge-shaped stone standing just short of three
metres high. Although Borlase said that it was made of ‘ironstone’
it is in fact made of the local igneous rock known as gabbro.
Standing stones vary considerably in their size and shape. They
rarely seem to have been transported very far, and mostly seem to
have been simply selected from rocks found on the ground or around
nearby rocky outcrops and tors. Their smooth surfaces and rounded
profiles are the result of aeons of ‘natural’ weathering by wind and
rain and the actions of plants and bacteria.
No excavation has taken place at Tremenheere but excavations at
similar sites in Cornwall have shown that they may be associated
with postholes and pits, and areas of quartz paving – all perhaps
indicative of the ceremonies and rituals for which they formed the
focus. Rarely, cists (stone-lined burial boxes) containing cremated
human remains, pottery and charcoal have been found. Excavation has
also shown that the hole, or socket, into which the stone has been
set may contain charcoal and there is also some evidence for the
ritual deposition of cremated human bone. The stone sockets
themselves can be surprisingly shallow.
Precise dating of the erection and use of standing stones is
complicated by the difficulty of identifying closely associated
archaeological layers or finds. Pottery and radiocarbon dating of
associated charcoal deposits indicate that they were mostly being
set up from the Late Neolithic through to the end of the Middle
Bronze Age, but there is increasing evidence that they continued to
be erected (or possibly re-erected) during the later prehistoric and
early mediæval periods. It also seems likely that some of the early
mediæval inscribed stones are possibly re-used Bronze
Age menhirs.
Standing stones are often found in association with other more
complex megalithic sites such as stone circles and stone alignments and
funerary and ritual monuments such as cairns and barrows in what
archaeologists have termed ‘ritual landscapes’.
On the slopes to the north of Tremenheere are a number of single
barrows, and about 1 kilometre to the south, on Crousa Common, is a
fallen standing stone and several groups of barrows including a
tightly knit alignment of five cairns.
Standing stones may have served a variety of purposes, and their
functions are likely to have changed through time. As well as
serving as funerary sites and providing the focus for ritual
activities they may also have served as way markers or boundary
stones; some are thought to have been sited to provide astronomical
alignments to significant positions along the horizon – possible for
calendrical purposes. None of these uses need exclude other uses
both at the same time or over the vast expanse of archaeological
time. Even in the modern day it is not unusual to find sites still
serving as arenas for ritual and ceremonial activity and it is not
unusual when visiting such sites to find offerings left by previous
visitors.
Access to the monument is via the public footpath between
Tremenheere and Trevallack. |
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Ground & Aerial photographs |
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