The Nine Maidens Stone Circle - geograph

Nine Maidens Downs is a moorland southwest of Four Lanes in

Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...

, England, UK.

Stone circles

The name Nine Maidens comes from two

Early Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

stone circles which stood 18m apart on the downs. There was a belief that the stones were originally young women turned to stone for dancing on the

Sabbath In Abrahamic religions, the Sabbath () or Shabbat (from Hebrew ) is a day set aside for rest and worship. According to the Book of Exodus, the Sabbath is a day of rest on the seventh day, Ten Commandments, commanded by God to be kept as a Holid ...

. Originally the south-east circle was 16m across with 14 or 15 stones. Half of this circle survives with a semicircle of five stones, four of which are free standing and the other is built into the

Cornish hedge A Cornish hedge is an ancient style of hedge built of stone and earth found in Cornwall, southwest England. Sometimes hedging plants or trees are planted on the hedge to increase its windbreaking height. A rich flora develops over the lifespan of ...

in its original position. At least one other stone still exists but was moved to build the hedge. The north-west circle had a diameter of about 21m. Two of its stones remain in the hedge but may not be in their original positions.

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) a ...

noted 10 stones of this circle remaining circa 1760.

Hangman's Barrow

Half a mile west of the stone circles, on a prominent ridge, is the massive Bronze Age

cairn A cairn is a human-made pile (or stack) of stones raised for a purpose, usually as a marker or as a burial mound. The word ''cairn'' comes from the (plural ). Cairns have been and are used for a broad variety of purposes. In prehistory, t ...

of Hangman's Barrow. The cairn, built entirely of stone, is 3m high and 20m in diameter. The centre has suffered from past tomb robbing attempts and nothing is known of its original contents.

River Cober

Nine Maidens is the source of the

river Cober The River Cober () is a short river in west Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The river runs to the west of Helston into The Loe, Cornwall's largest natural lake. Geology and hydrology It rises in Nine Maidens Downs, directly between Hangma ...

which rises between Hangman's Barrow to the west and the Nine Maidens stone circles to the east and runs to the west of the town of

Helston Helston () is a town and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated at the northern end of the The Lizard, Lizard Peninsula approximately east of Penzance and south-west of Falmouth, Cornwall, Falmouth.Ordnance Survey: ...

before entering the largest natural lake in Cornwall – Loe Pool.

School

Nine Maidens Board school was erected in 1878 at the northern end of the downs.

References

{{coord, 50.184, N, 5.253, W, display=title Moorlands of Cornwall Archaeological sites in Cornwall