Kerris (Standing Stone / Menhir) near Newlyn, Cornwall

Kerris Inscribed Stone

Whilst in Penzance for Golowan (who needs Glastonbury?) I had to visit some friends out at Kerris. First time I had been to the house so imagine my surprise when they told me they had a “stone” in their fireplace.
The house has been renovated over the last few years from a very ruinous state. Whilst making the old fireplace safe they discovered letters on a granite upright. Calling in Craig Weatherhill, who then called others they found out they had a 6th century inscribed stone. It is in a form of Latin and spells out something to do with Kerris. I promise to find out more....
Although not inscribed, the stones in the fireplace at the other end of the cottage are huge! If as they have been told there was possibly a circle in the area before Borlase came then perhaps this is what happened to the stones. The biggest one that makes the right hand side wall of the fireplace is approx 4 ft deep by 6 ft high! whilst the lintel is a good 7 ft long.

Kerris Menhir – 23.12.2002

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Follow the long dead end road to Kerris from the BB315. Just before you get to the village there is a small lay-by to your left. 20 metres on there is a small gate into a field on your right hand side (next to a farm field gate). Go through this field (it is a public footpath), over the stile, and into the second field. The triangular shaped Kerris menhir will be visible in the field, which was had the aftermath of a wheat crop in it when I was there.

Ian McNeil Cooke in his ‘Standing Stones of the Land’s End’ (1998 – Men-an-Tol Studios) says that it was “excavated by W.C.Borlase, when only a flint and pebble were found. In Medieval times a cross was supposedly erected close to this stone – it’s base was destroyed in 1864 long after the cross had disappeared”.