THE MEN-AN-TOL, OR HOLED-STONE. 153 
are points I shall now endeavour to explain ; but before doing so, 
it will be well, for the sake of those who cannot call to mind: what 
the Mén-an-tol is like, to say a few words descriptive of its 
appearance. 
It consists of an octangular-fashioned stone, of a laminar 
shape, standing upright on its edge. The part above the surface 
measures about three feet five inches in height, and it is on the 
average about ten inches thick. ‘The broad face of the stone is 
perforated by a large circular hole, one foot seven inches in 
diameter on the west side, and splayed outwardly so as to measure 
two feet three inches on the opposite face. On each side of this 
orifice, at a distance of about eight feet, stands an upright stone, 
and a few other stones may be seen lying in the vicinity. The 
whole group presents the appearance of the remains of some 
dilapidated structure. 
The examination of the contents and construction of ancient 
gravemounds by some of our leading antiquaries, has made known 
two or three instances of tolmén-entrances in connection with cham- 
bered tumuli. These entrances are formed by a couple of stones, 
placed together with the inner edges of each cut away in the centre, 
or by a large perforation in a single stone. It will not be necessary 
to speak here in detail of the circular holes sometimes occurring 
in the side-stones of cromlechs, as these orifices, with a few ex- 
ceptions, cannot be called entrance-holes, inasmuch as their size 
prevents the passage of anything larger than a man’s arm through 
them. Some holes in cromlech slabs have, however, a greater 
diameter, and in such cases they no doubt illustrate the subject in 
hand. But the tolmén-entrances, to which I would particularly refer, 
are those which have been noticed during the examination of 
certain chambered long barrows at Avening and Rodmarton in 
Gloucestershire, and at Kerlescant in Brittany.* In each barrow an 
entrance had been formed, by cutting away a portion of two con- 
tiguous walling stones, so as to make an oval orifice sufficiently 
large to enable a man to creep through. The object of these 
* Archeologia, vol. xvi, p. 362; Lysons’ British Ancestors, p. 141; 
Journal British Archeological Association, vol. xxiv, p. 41. Another example 
of a tolmén-entrance may be seen in Plas Newydd Park, Anglesea, and ig 
described by the Hon. W. O. Stanley, in the Archeéologia Cambrensis, 4th 
Series, vol. i, p. 51. 
