One of Cornwall’s finest stone circles, the ‘Nine Maidens’ site dates from late Neolithic-early Bronze Age (2500-1500 BC). Nineteen upright stones form an ellipse, with a leaning central stone about 8 feet high. All of the stones are granite except one pure quartz stone – quartz is believed to have had healing significance for the megalithic builders, associated with the moon. The central stone faces the midsummer solstice sunrise and that rising sun illuminates a base carving of two axes, ritual objects of that time. There are also alignments with the sunset of Samhain, and evidence that the circle was used ritualistically into the Dark Ages as one of three principal gorsedds (meeting places of the Bards) of the Island of Britain. On the day we visited there were offerings laid across many of the stones. Boscawen-ûn comes from the Cornish bos (farmstead) and scawan (elder or elderberry tree) with ûn (adjacent pasture). (information sources: CASPN website and Craig Weatherhill’s Belerion)
Flat Two 