La Longue Rocque

With a visible height of 3.5 metres and a further one metre under the field this the largest ancient monument in Guernsey. Situated close by was the dolmen Creux des Faes, (now destroyed). A tomb that has this huge rock as its sentinel must have been of great importance at some time. The engineering feat is quite stupendous and we can be certain that its location is not a random choice.

As youngsters in the 1970s we were told the stories of the Grande Pierre as it is also sometimes named. The story went that this was a giants cricket bat - a giant round rock (the ball) can be found near the back of the Imperial Hotel at Rocquaine.

On the north facing edge of the rock is an area that is worn smooth by touching or ÔrubbingÕ over the millennia. This may be due to ritual rubbing on the stone, or, more likely, the stone being used as a scratching post for livestock over the 6500 years it has been here. Place names surrounding these fields suggest other menhirs that have disappeared due to farming, building and superstition leaving our lonely sentinel alone with its secrets.