Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) appearances of 43 intracranial meningiomas were reviewed and correlated with their histology and consistency at surgery and on pathological examination. There was a statistically significant prevalence of hard tumours within the fibroblastic subtypes. No statistically significant correlation between signal intensity and histology or consistency was found. A meningioma hyperintense on T2-weighted images is, however, unlikely to be fibroblastic or hard.