About
Known locally as the St Breock Longstone or Men Gurta, St Breock Downs Monolith is Cornwall's largest and heaviest prehistoric standing stone, weighing about 16.75 tonnes. Raised around 2500 to 1500 BC, the 4.9-metre slab of local Devonian shale is laced with feldspar veins and now leans markedly to the north within a low stone cairn. It toppled in 1945 and was set upright again in 1956, when a small excavation found a bed of quartz pebbles and two shallow hollows beneath it. Later it served as a medieval meeting place and a parish boundary marker. The views reach over heath and pasture to the sea, and Bronze Age barrows run up to 4 miles west. Reviewers value the information board beside the stone and the short, easy path from roadside parking. Dogs on leads are welcome, and walkers can arrive along the Saints' Way from St Jidgey. The Cornwall Heritage Trust looks after it for English Heritage.
Open in daylightFrom English Heritage's calendar
- Open any reasonable time in daylight
From English Heritage's published calendar, updated 1 October 2026, with dates up to 16 March 2027.
Opening times may change at short notice.
Free entry; open any reasonable time during daylight hours.
Managed by the Cornwall Heritage Trust on behalf of English Heritage. No facilities on site; shops, food and facilities are in Wadebridge.
Accessibility: EH publishes no access details; the stone is a short walk along a path from the roadside layby on open downland.
Parking: small roadside layby a short walk from the path to the stone.
Photo: Richard-sr. CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0). Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SaintBreockDownsLongstone_nrWadebridge_Cornwall_1.jpg. Resized for display.
PricingFreeFree for all visitors
Free entry for everyone
Entry
Free for everyone
Pricing details
Free to everyone; open access site.
ParkingFree parkingFree for all visitors
No charge for anyone.
Parking details
Small roadside layby on the road to Rosenannon, a short walk from the path that leads to the monument; room for only a few vehicles.
Driving arrival: the layby listed on Google as 'Free Car Park' (F4HM+XR), about 90m north of the stone.
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Walking routes1 route
Saints' Way from St Jidgey to St Breock Downs(opens the full route on the National Trust site)
WalkDog access not confirmed4 km distance
