Boskednan stone circle () is a partially restored prehistoric stone circle near Boskednan, around 4 miles (6 kilometres) northwest of the town of Penzance in

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. 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

north of the road from

Madron Madron ( kw, Eglos Madern) is a civil parish and village in west Cornwall, Great Britain. Madron is named after Saint Madern's Church. Its annual Trafalgar Service commemorating the death of Vice Admiral Horatio Nelson was started on 27 Oct ...

Morvah Morvah is a civil parish and village on the Penwith peninsula in west Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. Geography The village is centred approximately eight miles (13 km) west-southwest of St Ives and north-west of Penzance.Ordnance S ...

, and is approximately 1 km northwest of the village of Boskednan and can only be reached on foot. The enigmatic

Mên-an-Tol The Mên-an-Tol ( Cornish: ''Men an Toll'') is a small formation of standing stones in Cornwall, UK (). It is about three miles northwest of Madron. It is also known locally as the "Crick Stone". Location The Mên-an-Tol stands near the Madron ...

stones (which may also be the remains of a stone circle) are less than 1 kilometre to the southwest.MEN AN TOL
, Pastscape, retrieved 9 November 2013

Construction

The stone circle once probably consisted of 22

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies under ...

blocks, from which 10 still survive. Six stones stand upright, one sits half a metre 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.Boskednan (Nine Maidens)
a

/ref> The stone circle originally described a circle with a diameter of approximately 22 m. The stone circle may have belonged with the nearby barrow to an extensive cult district.Boskednan or 'Nine Maidens'
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/ref>

History

Stone circles such as that at Boskednan, were erected in the late

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several p ...

or in the early

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...

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 (2 February 169631 August 1772), Cornish antiquary, geologist and naturalist. From 1722, he was Rector of Ludgvan, Cornwall, where he died. He is remembered for his works ''The Antiquities of Cornwall'' (1754; 2nd ed., 1769) ...

, who reported 19 upright standing stones.

William Copeland Borlase William Copeland Borlase (5 April 1848 – 31 March 1899) was a British antiquarian and Liberal politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1880 until 1887 when he was ruined by bankruptcy and scandal. Early life Borlase was born at Castl ...

, a descendant of the earlier Borlase, conducted excavations and found a

cist A cist ( or ; also kist ; from grc-gre, κίστη, Middle Welsh ''Kist'' or Germanic ''Kiste'') 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 Ea ...

and a funerary

urn An urn is a vase, often with a cover, with a typically narrowed neck above a rounded body and a footed pedestal. Describing a vessel as an "urn", as opposed to a vase or other terms, generally reflects its use rather than any particular shape or ...

near the stone circle, dating from the early

. Borlase described his discoveries in 1872 in his work ''Naenia Cornubiae'', which concerns prehistoric monuments of Cornwall.

Location

Construction

History

See also

References

Further reading

External links