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Hell Stone
Portesham, Hell Stone - geograph.org.uk - 521836.jpg
Hell Stone is located in Dorset
Hell Stone
Location in Dorset
Location Dorset
Coordinates 50°40′43″N 2°33′33″W / 50.678619°N 2.559209°W / 50.678619; -2.559209
OS grid reference SY604868
Type Dolmen

The Hell Stone is a badly-restored Neolithic dolmen on Portesham Hill in Dorset, England. It is around half a mile (0.8 km) north of the village of Portesham, and approximately three-quarters of a mile (1.2 km) 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 24 metres (79 ft) long and orientated northwest to southeast. The mound tapers from 12 to 8 metres (39 to 26 ft) in width from the southeast end to the northwest end, and it is 1 metre (3 ft 3 in) high.

Hellstone portesham
The Hell Stone

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 livestock was dug close to the southeast end of the mound in modern times. The remains of another tomb, The Grey Mare and her Colts, is 1+14 miles (2 km) to the west.

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