Boscawen-Un
Encyclopedia
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...
stone circle
Stone circle
A stone circle is a monument of standing stones arranged in a circle. Such monuments have been constructed across the world throughout history for many different reasons....
close to St Buryan
St Buryan
St Buryan is a civil parish and village in Cornwall, United Kingdom.The village of St Buryan is situated approximately five miles west of Penzance along the B3283 towards Land's End...
in Cornwall
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...
, UK. It consists of 19 upright stones in an ellipse
Ellipse
In geometry, an ellipse is a plane curve that results from the intersection of a cone by a plane in a way that produces a closed curve. Circles are special cases of ellipses, obtained when the cutting plane is orthogonal to the cone's axis...
with diameters 24.9m and 21.9m, with another, leaning, stone just south of the centre. There is a west-facing gap in the circle, which may have formed an entrance. It is located at . The leaning stone aligns exactly with the centre stone at the Mên-an-Tol
Mên-an-Tol
The Mên-an-Tol is a small formation of standing stones near the Madron-Morvah road in Cornwall, United Kingdom . It is about 3 miles north west of Madron...
and the church at nearby St Buryan
St Buryan
St Buryan is a civil parish and village in Cornwall, United Kingdom.The village of St Buryan is situated approximately five miles west of Penzance along the B3283 towards Land's End...
. While this may conceivably be coincidental, the precision of the alignment suggests an intentional positioning of the three sites in relation to each other.
The Gorseth Kernow
Gorseth Kernow
Gorseth Kernow is a non-political Cornish organisation, which exists to maintain the national Celtic spirit of Cornwall in the United Kingdom.-History:...
was inaugurated here in 1928. An old Welsh triad mentions one of the three principal gorseddau of the Island of Britain as "Beisgawen in Dumnonia
Dumnonia
Dumnonia is the Latinised name for the Brythonic kingdom in sub-Roman Britain between the late 4th and late 8th centuries, located in the farther parts of the south-west peninsula of Great Britain...
", which was taken to refer to Boscawen-Un by the Gorseth's founders.
Location
Boscawen-Un is in southwest CornwallCornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...
in the Penwith
Penwith
Penwith was a local government district in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, whose council was based in Penzance. The district covered all of the Penwith peninsula, the toe-like promontory of land at the western end of Cornwall and which included an area of land to the east that fell outside the...
district north of St Buryan
St Buryan
St Buryan is a civil parish and village in Cornwall, United Kingdom.The village of St Buryan is situated approximately five miles west of Penzance along the B3283 towards Land's End...
by the road from Penzance
Penzance
Penzance is a town, civil parish, and port in Cornwall, England, in the United Kingdom. It is the most westerly major town in Cornwall and is approximately 75 miles west of Plymouth and 300 miles west-southwest of London...
to Land's End
Land's End
Land's End is a headland and small settlement in west Cornwall, England, within the United Kingdom. It is located on the Penwith peninsula approximately eight miles west-southwest of Penzance....
. The stone circle is 300 m from the road. The location was apparently carefully selected, because it lies within visual range of The Merry Maidens
The Merry Maidens
The Merry Maidens , also known as Dawn's Men is a late neolithic stone circle located 2 miles to the south of the village of St Buryan, in Cornwall, United Kingdom....
stone circle and the two Pipers standing stones. In addition, a view of the sea, rare in this area, is offered here.
Boscawen-Un is a Cornish
Cornish language
Cornish is a Brythonic Celtic language and a recognised minority language of the United Kingdom. Along with Welsh and Breton, it is directly descended from the ancient British language spoken throughout much of Britain before the English language came to dominate...
name, containing the syllables bod (farmstead) and scawen (old tree). The suffix Un denotes an adjacent pasture. Therefore the name translates as the pasture of the farmstead at the old tree.
Construction
The stone circle consists of a central standing stoneStanding stone
Standing stones, orthostats, liths, or more commonly megaliths are solitary stones set vertically in the ground and come in many different varieties....
encircled by 19 other stones, including 18 made of gray granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
and one of bright quartz
Quartz
Quartz is the second-most-abundant mineral in the Earth's continental crust, after feldspar. It is made up of a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall formula SiO2. There are many different varieties of quartz,...
, which describe an ellipse
Ellipse
In geometry, an ellipse is a plane curve that results from the intersection of a cone by a plane in a way that produces a closed curve. Circles are special cases of ellipses, obtained when the cutting plane is orthogonal to the cone's axis...
with axes of 24.9 m and 21.9 m. The position of the quartz stone in the southwest may indicate the likely direction of the full moon
Full moon
Full moon lunar phase that occurs when the Moon is on the opposite side of the Earth from the Sun. More precisely, a full moon occurs when the geocentric apparent longitudes of the Sun and Moon differ by 180 degrees; the Moon is then in opposition with the Sun.Lunar eclipses can only occur at...
during the solstice
Solstice
A solstice is an astronomical event that happens twice each year when the Sun's apparent position in the sky, as viewed from Earth, reaches its northernmost or southernmost extremes...
. At the northeastern edge of the stone circle are two stones in the ground, one of which has an axe
Axe
The axe, or ax, is an implement that has been used for millennia to shape, split and cut wood; to harvest timber; as a weapon; and as a ceremonial or heraldic symbol...
petroglyph
Petroglyph
Petroglyphs are pictogram and logogram images created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, and abrading. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving", "engraving", or other descriptions of the technique to refer to such images...
. These engravings are unique in the United Kingdom.
There is a wide gap in the west of the circle, which suggests the loss of stones. However this gap may represent, as with the nearby Merry Maidens, an entrance. The central stone is 2.7 m long, but because of its strong inclination to the north-east, the tip is only 2.0 m above the ground. The leaning stone aligns with the central stone at the Mên-an-Tol
Mên-an-Tol
The Mên-an-Tol is a small formation of standing stones near the Madron-Morvah road in Cornwall, United Kingdom . It is about 3 miles north west of Madron...
and the church at nearby St Buryan
St Buryan
St Buryan is a civil parish and village in Cornwall, United Kingdom.The village of St Buryan is situated approximately five miles west of Penzance along the B3283 towards Land's End...
. Thus the inclination and orientation of the central stone may have been intentional. It is thought by some researchers that the central stone embodies the phallic male principle and the quartz stone represents the female powers of the ring.
History
The stone circle at Boscawen-Un, was erected in the Bronze AgeBronze Age
The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...
. It is possible that it was a meeting place for druids in the Iron Age
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...
. In any case, a Bardic group (Cornish: Gorsedd
Gorsedd
A gorsedd plural gorseddau, is a community or coming together of modern-day bards. The word is of Welsh origin, meaning "throne". It is occasionally spelled gorsedh , or goursez in Brittany....
) may have existed in this area, because in the Welsh Triads
Welsh Triads
The Welsh Triads are a group of related texts in medieval manuscripts which preserve fragments of Welsh folklore, mythology and traditional history in groups of three. The triad is a rhetorical form whereby objects are grouped together in threes, with a heading indicating the point of likeness...
from the 6th century AD, a Gorsedd of Beisgawen of Dumnonia is called one of the big three Gorsedds of Poetry of the Island of Britain. Dumnonia
Dumnonia
Dumnonia is the Latinised name for the Brythonic kingdom in sub-Roman Britain between the late 4th and late 8th centuries, located in the farther parts of the south-west peninsula of Great Britain...
was a kingdom in post-Roman Britain, which probably included Cornwall. In 1928 Henry Jenner
Henry Jenner
Henry Jenner FSA was a British scholar of the Celtic languages, a Cornish cultural activist, and the chief originator of the Cornish language revival....
founded here at Boscawen-Un, in the course of the revival of the Cornish language
Cornish language
Cornish is a Brythonic Celtic language and a recognised minority language of the United Kingdom. Along with Welsh and Breton, it is directly descended from the ancient British language spoken throughout much of Britain before the English language came to dominate...
and culture, the Cornish Bard Association and called it the Gorseth Kernow
Gorseth Kernow
Gorseth Kernow is a non-political Cornish organisation, which exists to maintain the national Celtic spirit of Cornwall in the United Kingdom.-History:...
(Gorsedd of Cornwall).
In 1864 the area around the stone circle was first studied scientifically. The excavation reports show that the central stone already had its remarkable inclination. A wall was removed which led through the site, and a stone wall that still surrounds the stones was built and is thus an early example of preservation of archaeological monuments. A burial mound was discovered near the stone circle, in which urn
Urn
An urn is a vase, ordinarily covered, that usually has a narrowed neck above a footed pedestal. "Knife urns" placed on pedestals flanking a dining-room sideboard were an English innovation for high-style dining rooms of the late 1760s...
s were located. From this time originates one of the first illustrations of the stone circle, which John Thomas Blight
John Thomas Blight
John Thomas Blight FSA was a Cornish archaeological artist born near Redruth in Cornwall.His father, Robert, a teacher, moved the family to Penzance and introduced his sons to the study of nature, antiquities and folk lore. John Blight was a natural draughtsman...
made, when he wrote a book concerning the churches of Cornwall with notes concerning ancient monuments. He also drew a plan of the burial mound and sketched one of the excavated urns.
See also
Other prehistoric stone circles in the former Penwith district- The Merry MaidensThe Merry MaidensThe Merry Maidens , also known as Dawn's Men is a late neolithic stone circle located 2 miles to the south of the village of St Buryan, in Cornwall, United Kingdom....
- Tregeseal EastTregeseal East stone circleTregeseal East is a heavily restored prehistoric stone circle around one mile northeast of the town of St Just in Cornwall, United Kingdom. The nineteen granite stones are also known as The Dancing Stones...
- also known as the Tregeseal Dancing Stones - BoskednanBoskednan stone circleBoskednan stone circle is a partially restored prehistoric stone circle near Boskednan, around 4 miles northeast of the town of Penzance in Cornwall, United Kingdom...
- also known as the Nine Maidens of Boskednan
Further reading
- John Barnatt: Prehistoric Cornwall: The Ceremonial Monuments, Turnstone Press Limited 1982. ISBN 0855001291
- Ian McNeil Cooke: Standing Stones of the Land's End, Cornwall: Men-an-Tol Studio 1998, ISBN 0951237195
External links
- Boscawen Un stone circle site page on The Megalithic Portal
- Boscawen Un stone circle site page on The Modern Antiquarian