Trippet stones
Encyclopedia
The Trippet stones or Trippet stones circle is a 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....

 located on Manor Common in Blisland
Blisland
Blisland is a village and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is approximately five miles northeast of Bodmin. According to the 2001 census, the parish had a population of 565....

, 9 kilometres (5.6 mi) north northeast of Bodmin
Bodmin
Bodmin is a civil parish and major town in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated in the centre of the county southwest of Bodmin Moor.The extent of the civil parish corresponds fairly closely to that of the town so is mostly urban in character...

 on Bodmin Moor
Bodmin Moor
Bodmin Moor is a granite moorland in northeastern Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is in size, and originally dates from the Carboniferous period of geological history....

 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
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 Stripple stones
Stripple stones
The Stripple stones or Stripple stones circle is a stone circle located on the south slope of Hawk's Tor, north northeast of Bodmin on Bodmin Moor in Cornwall, UK.-Description:...

 are nearby.

Description

The circle is situated on nearly level ground and has a diameter of 104.6 feet (31.9 m). It is made of eight upright 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...

 stones with four others that have fallen. The stones are spaced on average around 12 feet (3.7 m) apart, the highest measuring 5.2 feet (1.6 m). The fallen stones are 6.8 feet (2.1 m) and 5.2 feet (1.6 m) long. William Lukis suggested there may originally have been as many as twenty six menhir
Menhir
A menhir is a large upright standing stone. Menhirs may be found singly as monoliths, or as part of a group of similar stones. Their size can vary considerably; but their shape is generally uneven and squared, often tapering towards the top...

s that suffered at the hands of stone-breakers. Aubrey Burl
Aubrey Burl
Harry Aubrey Woodruff Burl MA, DLitt, PhD, FSA, HonFSA Scot is a British archaeologist most well known for his studies into megalithic monuments and the nature of prehistoric rituals associated with them. Prior to retirement he was Principal Lecturer in Archaeology, Hull College, East Riding of...

 suggested twenty eight, set up on opposite facing pairs and suggests the name represents the folklore belief that the stones were girls punished for tripping lightly on the sabbath
Sabbath
Sabbath in Christianity is a weekly day of rest or religious observance, derived from the Biblical Sabbath.Seventh-day Sabbath observance, i.e. resting from labor from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset, is practiced by seventh-day Sabbatarians...

. The Stripple stones
Stripple stones
The Stripple stones or Stripple stones circle is a stone circle located on the south slope of Hawk's Tor, north northeast of Bodmin on Bodmin Moor in Cornwall, UK.-Description:...

 are visible around 1 kilometre (0.621372736649807 mi) eastwards over boggy ground.

Archaeology

The Trippet stones were examined in 1908 by H. St. George Gray who excavated the nearby Stripple stones in 1905 and found a few flint
Flint
Flint is a hard, sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as a variety of chert. It occurs chiefly as nodules and masses in sedimentary rocks, such as chalks and limestones. Inside the nodule, flint is usually dark grey, black, green, white, or brown in colour, and...

 flakes and an entrance from this facing southwest, directly towards the Trippet stones.

Alignments

Norman Lockyer visited the site in 1907 and suggested the date of the circle's construction to be around 1700 BC
Anno Domini
and Before Christ are designations used to label or number years used with the Julian and Gregorian calendars....

 by calculating an alignment of Arcturus over Rough Tor
Rough Tor
Rough Tor, or Roughtor, rowter, is a hill and tor on Bodmin Moor, Cornwall. Its summit is 1313 ft above mean sea level, making it the second highest point in Cornwall....

. Lockyer also noted an eleven degree alignment between Trippet stones and Leaze stone circle
Leaze stone circle
Leaze stone circle is a stone circle located in the parish of St. Breward on Bodmin Moor in Cornwall, UK.-Description:The circle stands in enclosed pasture near the buildings of Leaze farm and is composed of sixteen stones, six of which have fallen. It is approximately twenty four meters in...

, but suggested if this alignment were to mean anything, it would have to be with regards stellar rising alignments as it is outside of the sun
Sun
The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is almost perfectly spherical and consists of hot plasma interwoven with magnetic fields...

's path. John Barnatt said that the Trippet stones "may replace (or complement) the Stripple stones as part of an overall building programme in the western half of Bodmin Moor".

External links

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