Mên-an-Tol, the Healing Stone
On a Cornish moor stands a round stone with a hole in the middle. Crawl through it nine times, folklore says, and you'll be cured.
What was reported
Mên-an-Tol, Cornish for 'stone of the hole', is a group of three stones on the moors of west Cornwall: a large, round, flat stone with a hole through its centre, standing between two upright stones.
Folklore says the stone has healing powers. Children with rickets were passed through the hole naked, nine times, and adults crawled through it to cure back pain. It was also said to help women who wanted children, and to be guarded by a fairy who could undo curses.
Explanations offered
The stones are probably the remains of a Bronze Age monument, perhaps part of a tomb or a stone circle, rearranged over time. The rituals of passing through holed stones are found across Britain and beyond, as a kind of symbolic rebirth.
- When
- Bronze Age; folk cures told for centuries
- Where
- Mên-an-Tol, Penwith, Cornwall, England, UK
- Witnesses
- Cornish folklore
- Status
- Folk custom
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.
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