Tregeseal East stone circle

The stone circle of Tregeseal is located near the village of Tregeseal in the former Penwith District in the county of Cornwall in England. The stone circle, also known as The Stones Dancing is about 4000 years old and dates from the late Neolithic or early Bronze Age.

Location

The stone circle is located in South-West Cornwall east of the Strait of Morvah to St Just in Penwith and located one kilometer east of the village Tregeseal. She can be reached from there via the Truth Wall Lane and Kenython Lane. In the surroundings there are other megalithic sites:

• Boscawen -Un
• Boskednan
• Chun Quoit
• Lanyon Quoit
• Mên-an -Tol
• Merry Maidens
• Mulfra Quoit
• Tregiffian
• Zennor Quoit

Construction

The stone circle consists of 19 granite blocks with a height between 1.0 and 1.4 m, approximately describing a circle with a diameter of about 21 m. Probably missing two stones, because the circle earlier consisted of 21 standing stones. The stone circle was subjected over the centuries than substantial conversion and restoration work so that today only the stones of the eastern half of the circle should be in their original position. The stone circle was part of a larger ritual district which existed as the area around the Merry Maidens from a total of three stone circles in east -west orientation. The other two stone circles were located west of the still existing stone setting. The westernmost of the three circles was destroyed in 1967 and is now detectable only by aerial photographs. From the Middle Stone Circle, which originally had the largest diameter and 1885, ten stones included, is today only a menhir standing upright to be found.

History

Contrary to popular belief, stone circles were built by as the Tregeseal not by the Celts, but much earlier in the late Neolithic or early Bronze Age of representatives of a 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 17 upright standing stones. An early pictorial representation delivered in 1827 William Cotton in his book Illustrations of Stone Circles, Cromlehs and other remains of the Aboriginal Britons in the West of Cornwall. At this time, some standing stones were present in the other two stone circles apparently. William Copeland Borlase found in the late 18th century, currently 16 stones and was in his work Naenia Cornubiae of 1872, which deals with the prehistoric monuments of Cornwall, the exact location of the stones again.