Tregeseal East - Stone Circle

Also known as Boskednan and exposed on high moorland near the Ding Dong mine northeast of Penzance, the Nine Maidens stone circle is sadly no longer much of a circle due to extensive removal of the stones over the centuries. It was, however, once much more impressive, substantiated by the flat-faced longstones which remain and are similar to those used in better preserved examples of stone circles in Penwith (Merry Maidens, Boscawen-Un).

By measuring the gaps between the remaining stones, one can calculate that it would originally have been a true circle with upward of 20 stones and a diameter of around 22m. The stones range in height from around 1 to 1.5 metres. In 1754, the historian Dr W. Borlase recorded 13 stones in situ, with some others scattered nearby. Now only a handful remain erect. In the C19th, his grandson WC Borlase excavated the area and discovered a stone lined burial chamber (cist), a complement to the burial urns which had previously been unearthed nearby.

The number nine of its name is common to many megalithic ceremonial sites, and thought to be related to the phases of the moon. Maidens, however, has two potential explanations: one says that it is a corruption of the Cornish word for stone (meyn), and the other suggests that it comes from rituals held at such places which would have involved unmarried women in fertility ceremonies. It could also be another example of stories about what happens to those who make merry on the Sabbath, as it is at the Merry Maidens, and a site with the same name on Dartmoor, Devon.