Lanyon Quoit

As I may have mentioned in the past, there’s only so much enthusiasm I can muster for male voice choirs and silver bands. On “The Reason Why”, by the Climax Male Voice Choir with Camborne Town Band (SENS 1020, 1974) we have a double whammy. It’s fine for what it is, but it’s not much to my taste. The cover, on the other hand, is magnificent.

Lanyon Quoit was one of the first ancient sites I ever visited, one foggy day in autumn 1976. Somewhere, I still have the photographs. But they're not as good as this one. Here is the dolmen in all its splendour, with Ding Dong mine to the right, and Carn Galver to the left. This area of west Cornwall is riddled with fantastic ancient monuments: Men An Tol, The Nine Maidens of Boskednan, Tregeseal Stone Circle, and the quoits of Mulfra, Chun & Zennor. Lanyon Quoit always looked a bit pre-fabricated for my liking; just *too* perfect to be authentic. I later found it had collapsed early in the 19^th century & was subsequently reconstructed, so maybe that's why it looks so perfectly honed. In 1769, William Borlase wrote in his Antiquities Of Cornwall that the monument was so tall that it was possible to ride a horse under the capstone. Wow.

Even so, it’s still a beautiful monument despite the reconstructive work, and the photograph - taken by Ander Gunn - that graces the cover of “The Reason Why” is a brilliantly composed image, taking in both the natural geology of the area and also its industrial heritage, as well as its ancient history.

Digging this album out reminded me of another favourite cover of mine, that of Kariba by Irish post-punkers Kissed Air. This featured Paul Caponigro’s incredible photographs of Pentre Ifan chambered tomb on the rear, and Kilclooney dolmen (I think??) on the front. There should be more ancient monuments on record sleeves, I think. Any other nominations out there (Julian Cope notwithstanding)?

More about Lanyon Quoit here: http://themodernantiquarian.com/site/235/lanyon_quoit.html