Spinsters Rock

Dolmen - Devon

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Spinsters Rock stands 3km west of the village Drewsteignton (which translates as "place of the Druid's Stones"), the dolmen is probably the remains of a neolithic burial chamber. Originally, the intact chamber would have been covered by a large mound, but this has been removed over the ages, so that no trace remains today. The surviving stones are all large, the capstone alone is estimated to weigh 16 tons and its top stands about 2.5m above the ground.
The configuration of the stones that exists today is almost certainly not original, the dolmen collapsed in 1862 and was re-erected in the same year, using a sketch made four years earlier as a guide. Spinsters Rock is the only Dolmen of this type still standing in Devon.
According to local legend, the dolmen was built one morning before breakfast by three spinsters who were passing on their way to market to sell their wool. It seems to us that tossing 16 ton stone slabs about without having your Weetabix first is pushing it a bit, but maybe girls were made of sterner stuff back then!