The Pipers are a pair of
standing stone
A menhir (; from Brittonic languages: ''maen'' or ''men'', "stone" and ''hir'' or ''hîr'', "long"), standing stone, orthostat, or lith is a large upright rock (geology), stone, emplaced in the ground by humans, typically dating from the Eur ...
s near
The Merry Maidens
The Merry Maidens (), also known as Dawn's Men (a likely corruption of the Cornish ''Dons Men'' "Stone Dance") is a Late Neolithic stone circle
A stone circle is a ring of megalithic standing stones. Most are found in Northwestern Europ ...
stone circle located 2 miles (3 km) to the south of the village of
St Buryan
St Buryan () is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of St Buryan, Lamorna and Paul in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. In 2011 the parish had a population of 1412.
The village of St Buryan is situated approximately west of ...
, 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, ...
,
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
.
Description
The Pipers are on a northeast to southwest alignment which points almost directly at
The Merry Maidens
The Merry Maidens (), also known as Dawn's Men (a likely corruption of the Cornish ''Dons Men'' "Stone Dance") is a Late Neolithic stone circle
A stone circle is a ring of megalithic standing stones. Most are found in Northwestern Europ ...
. The two stones stand in separate fields about 90 metres apart. The southwest stone is the taller of the two, measuring 4.7 metres high—there are two longitudinal cracks down the northwest side, and one down the southeast side.
The northeast stone is 4.2 metres high and is of rectangular section—the stone leans to the northwest.
Myth and legend
The name of these two stones derives from a legend that they were in fact two pipers who were turned to stone for playing music on the Sabbath for the nearby dancing Merry Maidens.
[ A different legend states that the two stones were set up following a 10th-century battle in which the Anglo-Saxon English, led by ]Æthelstan
Æthelstan or Athelstan (; ; ; ; – 27 October 939) was King of the Anglo-Saxons from 924 to 927 and King of the English from 927 to his death in 939. He was the son of King Edward the Elder and his first wife, Ecgwynn. Modern histori ...
, fought the Cornish Celts, led by Howel Howel is a given name. Notable people with the name include:
*Howel Brown (1856–1928), Glasgow cathedral provost
* Howel Davies (c. 1716–1770), Welsh Methodist minister
*Howel Gwyn (1806–1888), British politician
*Howel Harris Hughes (1873– ...
and supported by the Danes.
Research
The stones were first recorded 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) a ...
in 1754.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 Cas ...
excavated the stones in 1871 with no result.[
]
See also
*Boleigh Fogou
Boleigh Fogou is a fogou near St. Buryan in Cornwall, England. Iron Age pottery was found at the fogou along with carvings that may have been brought from elsewhere. It is unusual in structure as it has more than one entranceway.
The Boleigh fo ...
, northeast of The Pipers
*Tregiffian Burial Chamber
The Tregiffian Burial Chamber () is a Neolithic or early Bronze Age chambered tomb. It is near Lamorna in west Cornwall, United Kingdom (). It is a rare form of a passage grave, known as an '' Entrance grave''. It has an entrance passage, lined ...
, southwest of The Merry Maidens
References
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pipers, The, St Buryan
Megalithic monuments in England
Penwith
Prehistoric sites in Cornwall
Stone Age sites in Cornwall