Boskednan stone circle
The stone circle of Boskednan is located near the village Boskednan in the former Penwith District of Cornwall in England. The stone circle, also known as The Nine Maidens, is about 3000 to 4000 years old and dates from the late Neolithic or early Bronze Age.
Location
The stone circle located in southwest Cornwall north of the road from Madron and Morvah after 1km North- west of the village Boskednan and can be reached only on foot. In the surroundings there are other megalithic sites:
- Boscawen -Un
- Chun Quoit
- Lanyon Quoit
- Mên-an -Tol
- Merry Maidens
- Mulfra Quoit
- Tregeseal
- Tregiffian
- Zennor Quoit
Construction
The stone circle once consisted of probably 22 blocks of granite, of which 10 still remain. Six stones standing erect, a protruding stone half a meter from the ground, the others are in the ground. The standing stones are all about 1 m high, the highest measures approximately 2 m and is at the northern edge of the circle. The stone circle originally described a circle about 22 m in diameter. The stone circle was probably as the hills grave (English Barrow ) nearby to a vast cult area.
History
Contrary to popular belief, stone circles were built by Tregeseal not like the Celts, but much earlier in the late Neolithic or early Bronze Age by representatives of the megalithic culture. A first mention in modern times was the stone circle in 1754 in the work of Antiquities, historical and monumental, of the county of Cornwall by William Borlase, the reports of 19 upright standing stones. William Copeland Borlase, a descendant of the older Borlase, took in the area prior to excavation and found near the stone circle a stone box and a funeral urn that was from the early Bronze Age. His discoveries described Borlase in 1872 in his work Naenia Cornubiae, which deals with the prehistoric monuments of Cornwall.