Like many ancient monuments, the Tolvan stone is an enigma. It stands about 2m tall by 2.2m wide very (very) close to the wall of a house in private garden. Its most notable and unusual feature is the large, almost perfect, hole in its centre, through which a slim person could perhaps pass.

It is hard not to think of the Tolvan stone and the Men-an-tol in the same breath for they both present the same questions: why did a person – or people – put all that effort into creating a large smooth round hole in the middle of a large lump of granite and what were they for?

Tradition has it that passing through the hole the requisite number of times will cure rickets or scofula, ensure a year of happiness, cure produce babies … or satisfy one’s heart’s desire. In other words, no one knows what it was for or how it was used.

Opinions about the Men-an-tol seem to agree that it was once part of a larger structure, perhaps a stone circle but it is hard to work out if the Tolvan stone was part of something larger because of the presence of the house and its garden which covers a former farmyard.

The proximity to the house is curious, too. If you were building a stone house so close to a large stone, would you not incorporate it into one wall, blocking up the hole to avoid draughts, perhaps? Conversely, if you were not going to use the stone then why build quite so close to it? Does the presence of the house hint at continuity of use down the ages, with some previous structure having been turned into a dwelling and have people been living here, as ‘guardians of the stone’ since the mists of time?

We were told that dowsers had reported three streams converging beneath the stone.

Note: the stone stands in a private garden here. The owners are very ready to show you ‘their’ stone but do please ask permission.