Boskednan stone circle
Encyclopedia
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....
near Boskednan
Boskednan
Boskednan is a hamlet in west Cornwall, United Kingdom....
, around 4 miles (6 kilometres) northeast of the town of 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...
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...
, United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. The megalithic monument is traditionally known as the Nine Maidens or Nine Stones of Boskednan, although the original structure may have contained as many as 22 upright stones around its 69 metre perimeter.
Location
The stone circle 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...
north of the road from Madron
Madron
Madron is a civil parish and village in west Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is a large rural parish on the Penwith peninsula north of Penzance.Madron village is situated approximately two miles northwest of Penzance town centre....
to Morvah
Morvah
Morvah is a civil parish and village on the Penwith peninsula in west Cornwall, United Kingdom. The village is situated approximately eight miles west-southwest of St Ives and 5½ miles north-west of Penzance....
, and is approximately 1 km northwest of the village of Boskednan
Boskednan
Boskednan is a hamlet in west Cornwall, United Kingdom....
and can only be reached on foot.
Construction
The stone circle once probably consisted of 22 graniteGranite
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...
blocks, from which 10 still survive. Six stones stand upright, one sits half a meter out of the ground, the others remain lying in the soil. The stones are all about 1 m high, the highest measure approximately 2 m and stand to northern edge of the circle. The stone circle originally described a circle with a diameter of approximately 22 m. The stone circle may have belonged with the nearby barrow
Tumulus
A tumulus is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds, Hügelgrab or kurgans, and can be found throughout much of the world. A tumulus composed largely or entirely of stones is usually referred to as a cairn...
to an extensive cult district.
History
Stone circles such as that at Boskednan, were erected in the late NeolithicNeolithic
The Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BC in some parts of the Middle East, and later in other parts of the world. It is traditionally considered as the last part of the Stone Age...
or in the early Bronze Age
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...
by representatives of a Megalithic culture. The first mention of the stone circle in modern times, in 1754, is found in the work Antiquities, historical and monumental, of the County of Cornwall by William Borlase
William Borlase
William Borlase , Cornish antiquary, geologist and naturalist, was born at Pendeen in Cornwall, of an ancient family . From 1722 he was Rector of Ludgvan and died there in 1772.-Life and works:...
, who reported 19 upright standing stones. William Copeland Borlase
William Copeland Borlase
William Copeland Borlase FSA was an antiquarian and Liberal politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1880 until 1887 when he was ruined by bankruptcy and scandal....
, a descendant of the earlier Borlase, conducted excavations and found a cist
Cist
A cist from ) is a small stone-built coffin-like box or ossuary used to hold the bodies of the dead. Examples can be found across Europe and in the Middle East....
and a funerary 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...
near the stone circle, dating from the early Bronze Age
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...
. Borlase described his discoveries in 1872 in his work Naenia Cornubiae, which concerns prehistoric monuments of Cornwall.
See also
Other prehistoric stone circles in the Penrith region- Boscawen-UnBoscawen-UnBoscawen-Un is a Bronze age stone circle close to St Buryan in Cornwall, UK. It consists of 19 upright stones in an ellipse 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...
- 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....
- also known as Dans Maen - 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
Further reading
- John Barnatt: Prehistoric Cornwall. The Ceremonial Monuments. Turnstone Press Limited, Wellingborough 1982, ISBN 0-85500-129-1.
- Robin Payne: The Romance of the Stones. Alexander Associates, Fowey 1999, ISBN 1-899526-21-8.
External links
- Boskednan stone circle site page on The Megalithic Portal
- Nine Stones of Boskednan site page on The Modern Antiquarian
- Boskednan Stone Circle page at Megalithic Walks