Legend
Thor's Stone
Red rock, blood-red legend.
Stand where it happened
- What's there
- A great carved and initialled red sandstone block in a hollow
- Legend from
- Picton (1877); Victorian additions
- Best time
- Any
- Tone
- Eerie
Some say the red of Thor's Stone is the blood of Viking sacrifices.
Thor's Stone is a huge red sandstone outcrop on Thurstaston Common. In 1877 Sir James Picton called it the 'Great Stone of Thor', a relic of Saxon or Danish heathendom. He linked it to the name Thurstaston, though he admitted there was no local legend about it. Later stories say Vikings held rites here and that the red rock is stained with the blood of victims, or that Thor left his hammer here. In 1888 the rector of Wallasey said locals called the stone 'Fair Maiden's Hall', and that children came once a year to dance round it. The name Thurstaston actually means Thorsteinn's farm.