Location Dorset | Type Dolmen | |
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Similar Hardy Monument, Kingston Russell Stone Cir, Nine Stones - Winterbo, Black Down - Dorset, Abbotsbury Castle | ||
The Hell Stone (grid reference SY604868) is a badly-restored Neolithic dolmen on Portesham Hill in Dorset, England. It is around 1 kilometre north of the village of Portesham, and approximately 1 kilometre southeast of the Valley of Stones.
Description
The Hell Stone is situated at the head of a dry valley system in the parish of Portesham. The burial chamber is at the southeast end of a rectangular mound. The mound is orientated northwest to southeast, and is 24 metres long. The mound tapers in width from the southeast end (12 metres) to the northwest end (8 metres) and is 1 metre high. The remains of another tomb, The Grey Mare and her Colts, is 2 kilometres to the west.
The chamber was badly restored in 1866 when eight men re-erected the stones, arranging them radially "rather like the slices of a cake" and supporting a large capstone. The chamber may have been, originally, a long rectangular one. A drystone wall runs across the mound and a pond for watering stock was dug close to the southeast end of the mound in modern times.