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| Description | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Merry Maidens
The circle, which is thought to be complete, comprises nineteen granite megaliths and is situated in a field alongside the B3315 between Newlyn and Land's End. The stones are approximately 1.2 metres high and are spaced apart by three to four metres. The circle is approximately twenty-four metres in diameter, with the tallest stone standing 1.4 metres tall. On the east side is a larger gap between the stones. To the south, is another stone, giving the system a north-south orientation. In earlier times there was another stone circle located 200 metres away, but it was destroyed by the end of the 19th Century. 300 metres to the northeast are the Pipers – two 3-metre high standing-stones. The Tregiffian Burial Chamber is nearby.
[edit] Tags:Dawn Men,Cornish,Neolithic,Stone Circle,St Buryan,Cornwall,United Kingdom,Megaliths,B3315,Newlyn,Land's End,Tregiffian Burial Chamber,Petrifaction,Tregeseal Dancing Stones,Nine Maidens Of Boskednan,Hurlers,William Borlase,William Copeland Borlase,Boscawen-un,Boskednan,Tregeseal East,Burl, Aubrey,Yale University Press,Cope, Julian,The Modern Antiquarian: A Pre-millennial Odyssey Through Megalithic Britain,Rowe, Toni-maree,Tempus,Metsamor,Tremeca,Lancken-granitz Dolmens,Turoe Stone,La Hougue Bie,Wadi Boura Stone Circles And Stone Rectangles,Tarxien,Brąchnówko,Cunha Baixa Dolmen,Picture Stones,Boundary Stones,Trippet Stones, | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Myth and legend | 2>
The Merry Maidens
The local myth about the creation of the stones suggests that nineteen maidens were turned into stone as punishment for dancing on a Sunday. (Dans Maen translates as Stone Dance.) The pipers, two megaliths some distance north-east of the circle, are said to be the petrified remains of the musicians who played for the dancers. A more detailed story explains why the Pipers are so far from the Maidens - apparently the two pipers heard the church clock in St Buryan strike midnight, realised they were breaking the sabbath, and started to run up the hill away from the maidens who carried on dancing without accompaniment. These petrifaction legends are often associated with stone circles, and is reflected in the folk names of some of the nearby sites, for example, the Tregeseal Dancing Stones, the Nine Maidens of Boskednan, as well as the more distant Hurlers and Pipers on Bodmin Moor.
[edit] | Tags: Research | 2>
The Merry Maidens were first examined in detail by antiquarian William Borlase in 1769, who also reported a second equally large circle of stones.[1] In 1872 William Copeland Borlase, a descendent of the elder Borlase, produced a more detailed description of the area.[2] At that time seven stones were still present from the second stone circle, before it disappeared by the end of the 19th Century. Hugh O’Neill Hencken wrote a first modern scientific view of the archaeological site in 1932.[3]
A more recent study was produced by John Barnatt in 1982. Today it is thought that there were originally 18 standing-stones. In the mid-19th century new stones were added in an attempt at reconstruction, but not in the correct position or number. In addition, some of the old stones were moved, giving the appearance that the stone circle has today.[4]
[edit] | Tags: See also | 2>
Other prehistoric stone circles in the Penwith district
Boscawen-Un
Boskednan, also known as the Nine Maidens of Boskednan
Tregeseal East, also known as the Tregeseal Dancing Stones
[edit] | Tags: Notes | 2>
^ William Borlase: Antiquities Historical and Monumental of the County of Cornwall. Bowyer and Nichols, London 1769.
^ William Copeland Borlase: Naenia Cornubiae. Longmans 1872
^ Hugh O’Neill Hencken: The Archaeology of Cornwall and Scilly. Metheun 1932.
^ John Barnatt: Prehistoric Cornwall: The Ceremonial Monuments. Turnstone Press Limited 1982.
[edit] | Tags: References | 2>
Burl, Aubrey (2000). The stone circles of Britain, Ireland and Brittany. Yale University Press. Chapter 9. ISBN 0-300-08347-5.
Cope, Julian (1998). The Modern Antiquarian: A Pre-Millennial Odyssey Through Megalithic Britain. HarperCollins. p. 164. ISBN 0-7225-3599-6.
Rowe, Toni-maree (2005). Cornwall in prehistory. Tempus. Chapter 3. ISBN 0-7524-3440-3.
[edit] | Tags: External links | 2>
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Merry Maidens
The Merry Maidens stone circle site page on The Megalithic Portal
The Merry Maidens stone circle site page on The Modern Antiquarian
Coordinates: 50°03′54″N 5°35′23″W / 50.06504°N 5.58973°W / 50.06504; -5.58973
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| Tags: Dawn Men,Cornish,Websites related to: Dawn Stone |