Devil's Quoit
Also known asDevils Quoit
DatedEst. 4000–3000 BCE
Photo Michael Murray · CC BY-SA 2.0Source file on Wikimedia Commons
Overview
About this site
What the sources say
Devil’s Quoit (auch Devil’s Coyt oder Arthur’s Quoit genannt) ist ein 1870 weitgehend zerstörtes Portal Tomb im Weiler Quoit bei St Columb Major in Cornwall in England.
Erhalten ist nur der gewaltige Deckstein einer Kammer. Der Quoit wurde im Jahre 1870 zerstört. Der Deckstein blieb erhalten.
Der Weiler Quoit leitet seinen Namen von dem „Teufels Quoit“ ab. Der Dolmen stand noch im Jahr 1840. Er ist zwischen 1840 und 1850 teilweise eingestürzt. Bis zum 20. Jahrhundert waren die Steine noch vorhanden, wurden dann aber zerteilt oder vergraben.
Etwa zwei Kilometer entfernt liegt das eisenzeitliche Hillfort auf Dinas Island.
Article in GermanRead on Wikipedia2 min readCC BY-SA 4.0
Where it sits in time
The site's dated range, placed against world reference points.
The scale is logarithmic: each step to the left is about ten times older than the last.
The full article
Devil's Quoit: the whole story
In briefSources for this section
Sources for this section
Devil's Quoit is a megalithic long barrow at Quoit, near St Columb Major in Cornwall, England. The site is also known as Devil's Coyt and Arthur's Quoit.
It was a portal tomb and was largely destroyed in 1870. Only the massive capstone of its chamber remains.
The dolmen was still standing in 1840. It partly collapsed between 1840 and 1850, and its stones remained in place into the 20th century before being broken up or buried.
The monument belongs to the Early Neolithic period and is dated by typological estimate to between 4000 and 3000 BCE. Around two kilometres away is the Iron Age hillfort on Dinas Island.
Summary in EnglishSources for this section
Sources for this section
Devil's Quoit is a megalithic long barrow in St Columb Major, United Kingdom. Wikidata describes it as: chambered tomb in St Columb Major, Cornwall, England, UK. A typological estimate: 4000 BCE to 3000 BCE. No English Wikipedia article exists for it; the full text below is the German article "Devil’s Quoit (St Columb Major)", shown in the original language.
The rest of the page is the article itself, the structured records and computed distances.
How this page was madeSources for this section
Sources for this section
The summary at the top of this page was written by MiniMax-M3 (2026-11-08) from the cited Wikipedia article “Devil’s Quoit (St Columb Major)”, translated from German. The numbers in it were checked automatically against the source text. The rest of the page is the article itself, the structured records and computed distances.
Tradition and region
About this kind of monument
British megalithic long barrows
Long barrows are among the oldest monuments of Britain, built in the Early Neolithic in the fifth and fourth millennia BCE. A long barrow has a long earthen mound flanked by ditches, typically 20 to 70 metres long, and some have a timber or stone chamber at one end. Those using stone represent the oldest widespread tradition of stone construction in the world. Around 40,000 long barrows survive across Western Europe, and their purpose is still debated: they may have been religious sites, part of ancestor veneration, or economic and territorial markers.
Britain has regional groups. The Cotswold-Severn group of western England and Wales has around 200 known examples, with chambers of stone. Belas Knap on Cleeve Hill, Gloucestershire, is an outstanding example of this group; it is trapezoid in shape and was built around 3000 BCE, with successive burials over a period of years. Wayland's Smithy in Oxfordshire, a chambered long barrow, is believed to have been completed around 3430 BCE. The West Kennet Long Barrow near Avebury, probably built in the 37th century BCE, survives in a partly reconstructed state, and Coldrum in Kent, a ruin, was probably built in the fourth millennium BCE. These barrows were built by pastoralists shortly after farming reached Britain from the continent.
Dating comes from radiocarbon dates on bone from the chambers, and from pottery.
Folklore: Wayland's Smithy takes its name from a Saxon smith-god, and the story says a traveller could leave a horse and a coin there to be shod. This is a later tale and is not connected with the Neolithic builders.
When visiting, look for the trapezoid or wedge outline, and for the chamber at one end of the mound.
Paraphrased from Wikipedia: Long barrow, Wikipedia: West Kennet Long Barrow, Wikipedia: Wayland's Smithy, Wikipedia: Belas Knap, Wikipedia: Cotswold-Severn tomb, Wikipedia: Coldrum Long Barrow · CC BY-SA 4.0
From the article
Dated moments in the story
- 1840
Der Dolmen stand noch im Jahr 1840. Er ist zwischen 1840 und 1850 teilweise eingestürzt.
Source - 1870
Devil’s Quoit (auch Devil’s Coyt oder Arthur’s Quoit genannt) ist ein 1870 weitgehend zerstörtes Portal Tomb im Weiler Quoit bei St Columb Major in Cornwall in England.
Source - 1870
Der Quoit wurde im Jahre 1870 zerstört.
Source
Photographs
1 photograph, each with its author and licence
Lore
Evidence & Lore
What the sources actually support — and, kept apart, what has been claimed.
What the evidence supports
Dates
Est. 4000–3000 BCEHow this date was established: Type comparisonTypical range for megalithic long barrows in United Kingdom; this site has not been dated itself. Long barrows were built across western Europe in the 5th and 4th millennia BCE and the tradition had reached Britain by the first half of the 4th millennium BCE.Source for this date
Where it stands
United Kingdom
The pin marks the monument itself — its exact point.
- Coordinates
- 50°25′13″ N, 4°55′30″ WFor a GPS or map app: 50.42040, -4.92490
Access is as our sources describe it; we have not visited the site to check.
Nearby
The closest sites in the Atlas, by straight line.
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Two round barrows 150m south west and 180m south east of Prince Parc4000–800 BCE
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Nine round barrows 850m north east of Pennatillie4000–800 BCE
Nine Maidens stone row4000–2400 BCE- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Three bowl barrows between 120m and 820m south of Brynn Barton Cottage4000–800 BCE
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Seven round barrows and a ring barrow on Bear's Downs and Denzell Downs, 850m north east of Higher Denzell4000–800 BCE
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)The Nine Maidens stone alignment, The Fiddler standing stone and two Bronze Age round barrows4000–800 BCE
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Four round barrows 400m south east of Little Trewinnick Farm4000–800 BCE
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Eleven round barrows and a stone alignment centred 980m north west of Nine Maidens Stone Row4000–800 BCE
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Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q116872482wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
Image files
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Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
- Two round barrows 150m south west and 180m south east of Prince Parc5.3 km N
- Nine round barrows 850m north east of Pennatillie5.7 km N
- Nine Maidens stone row5.8 km N
- Three bowl barrows between 120m and 820m south of Brynn Barton Cottage5.9 km E
- Seven round barrows and a ring barrow on Bear's Downs and Denzell Downs, 850m north east of Higher Denzell6.1 km NW
- The Nine Maidens stone alignment, The Fiddler standing stone and two Bronze Age round barrows6.2 km N
- Four round barrows 400m south east of Little Trewinnick Farm6.2 km N
- Eleven round barrows and a stone alignment centred 980m north west of Nine Maidens Stone Row6.4 km N
- Three round barrows on St Issey Beacon, Trelow Downs, 960m north east of Little Pennatillies6.5 km N
- Eight round barrows north of Scotland Corner, 980m south west of Pawton Gate Farm6.7 km N
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Text from the Wikipedia article "Devil’s Quoit (St Columb Major)" (German), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; authors are listed in the page history. Reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read on Wikipedia · Edit history and authors