The Hurlers (stone circles)
The Hurlers stone circles of standing stones are round. You are in the county of Cornwall in England. The megaliths of the cult system consists of three stone circles, dating from the early Bronze Age.
Location
The Hurlers are in Caradon District north of Liskeard in the village of Minions on the southern edge of Bodmin Moor in Cornwall. Nearby is Rillaton Barrow and Trethevy Quoit, a portal tomb from the Neolithic period. In Cornwall you will find other megalithic sites:
- Boskednan
- Boscawen -Un
- Chun Quoit
- Lanyon Quoit
- Mên-an -Tol
- Merry Maidens
- Mulfra Quoit
- Tregeseal
- Tregiffian
- Zennor Quoit
Construction
The three stone circles of the Hurlers, which lie approximately on a line from SSW to NNE have diameters of 32, 42 and 33 m. The two outer stone circles are circular, the middle and largest stone circle, however, is slightly elliptical. The southern stone circle is get worst and has only nine of the original 26 monoliths, two of which stand upright and the other seven are partially covered with soil. In the middle circle are of the past 28 stones still 15 which are all about 1.8 m high. Some menhirs show clear traces of processing on and run up pointed to or have a rounded end. One of the blocks has been processed, that its upper end has a gap. The northern stone circle consisting of 28 standing stones, of which 11 still upright and 6 are to be found lying. Two other monoliths Pipers ( bagpipers ) available, 120 m southwest of the center circle. They were probably Eingangsssteine cult conditioning and perhaps also fulfilled an astronomical purpose. Due to the lack of dating options can not be determined with certainty that the stone circles were built at the same time.
Origin of the name
The name The Hurlers goes back to a legend that here men and women played on a holy day hurling and punishment for in stones were transformed. When hurling fight two great teams with sticks around a wooden ball. The game was formerly accompanied by music, to which the name of the " Pipers " refers. It is also, according to legend hardly possible to determine the exact number of menhirs. To those who still manages it, the stones to count correctly, supposedly a misfortune will befall.
History of Research
The Hurlers and their legend was first treated in 1586 by William Camden in his topographical and historical account of Britain. In another encyclopedic representation Britain appeared in 1728 which at the end of the 16th century, written by John North Cornwall's description, in which the menhirs were also mentioned. 1769 William Borlase gave the first detailed description of the archaeological megalithic site. A modern scientific presentation authored by Hugh O'Neill Hencken 1932.