Hell Stone
Hell Stone is located in Dorset
Hell Stone
Shown within Dorset
LocationDorset
Coordinates50°40′43″N 2°33′33″W / 50.678619°N 2.559209°W / 50.678619; -2.559209
OS grid referenceSY604868
TypeDolmen

The Hell Stone is a badly-restored Neolithic dolmen on Portesham Hill in Dorset, England. It is around half a mile (0.8 km) north of the village of Portesham, and approximately three-quarters of a mile (1.2 km) southeast of the Valley of Stones.[1]

Description

The Hell Stone is situated at the head of a dry valley system in the parish of Portesham.[2] The burial chamber is at the southeast end of a rectangular mound. The mound is 24 metres (79 ft) long and orientated northwest to southeast.[2] The mound tapers from 12 to 8 metres (39 to 26 ft) in width from the southeast end to the northwest end, and it is 1 metre (3 ft 3 in) high.[2]

The Hell Stone

The chamber was badly restored in 1866 when eight men re-erected the stones, arranging them radially "rather like the slices of a cake" and supporting a large capstone.[3] The chamber may have been, originally, a long rectangular one.[3] A drystone wall runs across the mound, and a pond for watering livestock was dug close to the southeast end of the mound in modern times.[2] The remains of another tomb, The Grey Mare and her Colts, is 1+1⁄4 miles (2 km) to the west.[1]

Notes

  1. 1 2 Google (10 February 2021). "Hell Stone Dolmen" (Map). Google Maps. Google. Retrieved 10 February 2021.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Historic England. "Hell Stone (452288)". Research records (formerly PastScape). Retrieved 25 November 2013.
  3. 1 2 Glyn E. Daniel (1950), The Prehistoric Chamber Tombs of England and Wales, page 93. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 110769762X


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