Arthurs Stone

Arthur’s Stone

By Charles E S Fairey

A distant eerie humming

A swarm riding the wind,

Over this ancient beacon

God’s bees thousands sing,

Above these stones of Arthur King.

This place of ancestral grave,

Where stone age man

Buried his family and tribe,

Upon this hill above Dorstone,

A godly energy forevermore sown.

Named after the famed sire,

Legend of a great battle

Between Arthur and a giant,

Or that the great king here buried

Forevermore these stones enchanted.

The Quoit Stone nearby

Where left cup marks

Where great king prayed,

After his battle Merlin praised,

After giant from life erased.

Today the stones still speak

UFOs thought to visit this place,

And bees swarm above skybound,

Their energy enchanting mankind

And to sacred hills about aligned.

Mysteries and alien beings bring

Pilgrims to this ancient site,

Skyward this beacon’s dancing light

Brings all who revel in magical delight,

A distant magical humming sings

For these stones of Arthur King.

About 30 miles from the Herefordshire town of Ross-on-Wye, by road, the enigmatic remains of Arthur's Stone, stand, close to Dorstone, not too far from the town of Hay on Wye.

Arthur's Stone, is a burial chamber of the 'multi-chamber' variety of the Neolithic Period and dates somewhere between approximately 3700 to 2700 BC. The 'Neolithic Period' or 'New Stone Age' was the period of time during which people had begun to live in small communities and farm the land but had not yet discovered the use of metal. Tombs like this were used to bury the dead from such communities and many spanned the generations. With only simple stone tools available, the raising of the roof on Arthur's Stone must have been a considerable feat! The mound which once covered the tomb has now largely eroded away. The roof has partially collapsed and some of the stones were removed during the 19th Century.

The tomb is named Arthur's Stone because, according to folklore, it marks the spot of one of King Arthur's battles. This legend however dates from thousands of years after the stone tomb was erected. Various other legends recount tales of a king, or giant killed by King Arthur buried here. Another claims this to be the burial place of the man himself!

To the south is a stone known as the Quoit Stone bearing small man-made cup marks, again legend tells of Arthur's elbows as he prayed, or a giant's as he fell.