Hag stones, known in Cornwall as milpreves, were once used to weight fishing nets in working harbours like Mevagissey. These naturally holed stones are now often found along the shoreline, combining practical fishing history with Cornish folklore.
What is a Hag Stone?
A hag stone is a naturally holed stone, usually found along beaches and shorelines. In Cornwall, they are known as milpreves and were once used in everyday fishing life.
What were Milpreves used for?
Milpreves were used to weight fishing nets, helping them sink and hold position in the water. They were a simple but essential part of traditional Cornish fishing.
Where can you find Hag Stones in Cornwall?
Hag stones can still be found along the Cornish coastline, particularly around fishing harbours like Mevagissey, where they were once commonly used.
Today, hag stones are better known for their folklore, but their origins are rooted in practical fishing life along the Cornish coast.
A milpreve is a small, shaped stone once used to weight fishing nets along the Cornish coast.
Before modern materials, fishermen relied on what was available to them. Stones were selected, shaped, and tied into nets to help them sink and hold position beneath the water. Simple in form, but essential in function, milpreves were part of everyday working life in fishing harbours like Mevagissey.
The Role They Played
Fishing in Cornwall was never passive. Nets had to be set correctly, held in place, and work with the movement of the tide.
Milpreves provided that weight.
Without them, nets would drift or fail to sit properly. With them, fishermen could control how their gear behaved beneath the surface – improving their chances of a successful catch.
The milpreves weighted down the fishing nets that helped create the local economy.
They were not valuable objects in themselves, but they played a quiet, necessary role in a much larger system.
Life in a Working Harbour
In a place like Mevagissey, fishing shaped everything.
Boats left before first light.
They returned when they could.
What came back depended on the sea, not the schedule.
Milpreves were part of that rhythm – handled without thought, used daily, and replaced when lost. Like much of working life at the harbour, they were practical rather than precious.
From Use to Obscurity
As fishing methods changed, so too did the materials used.
Lead weights and modern equipment gradually replaced stone. The milpreves, once common, disappeared from everyday use.
Many were lost to the sea. Others were discarded or simply forgotten.
Found Again
Occasionally, these stones reappear.
Washed ashore, uncovered in harbour areas, or found along the coastline, they remain as small traces of a working past. Easily overlooked, they carry little sign of their original purpose unless you know what to look for.
A Quiet Reminder
Milpreves are not decorative objects, nor were they ever intended to be.
They are reminders of a time when fishing was built on simple materials, hard work, and experience passed from one generation to the next.
Small, unremarkable, and once essential – they form part of the unseen foundation of Cornwall’s fishing heritage.