Boskednan stone circle facts for kids
Restored stones at the Boskednan circle
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 Location in Southwest Cornwall
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| Location | Cornwall |
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| Coordinates | 50°09′38″N 5°35′37″W / 50.1605408°N 5.5936987°W |
| Type | Stone circle |
| History | |
| Periods | Neolithic / Bronze Age |
| Site notes | |
| Ownership | CASPN |
The Boskednan stone circle is an ancient set of stones in Cornwall, United Kingdom. It's about 4 miles (6 kilometres) northwest of Penzance, near a village called Boskednan. People sometimes call it the Nine Maidens or Nine Stones of Boskednan. This special place was built a very long time ago, before written history. It's a type of stone circle, which is a monument made of large stones placed in a circle. While it's called the Nine Maidens, experts think it might have originally had as many as 22 stones.
Where is it?
The Boskednan stone circle is in the southwest part of Cornwall. You can find it north of the road that goes from Madron to Morvah. It's about 1 kilometre northwest of the village of Boskednan. You can only get to it by walking. Another mysterious stone site, the Mên-an-Tol stones, is less than 1 kilometre away to the southwest. Some people think Mên-an-Tol might also be the remains of an old stone circle.
How was it built?
This stone circle was probably made up of 22 large granite blocks. Today, 10 of these stones are still there. Six of them stand upright, and one is partly sticking out of the ground. The others are lying flat on the soil. Most of the stones are about 1 metre tall. The tallest ones are about 2 metres high and are on the northern side of the circle.
The circle itself was originally about 22 metres across. Experts believe this stone circle might have been part of a larger important area. This area could have included a nearby barrow, which is a type of ancient burial mound.
History of the stones
Stone circles like the one at Boskednan were built a very long time ago. This happened during the late Neolithic period or the early Bronze Age. The Neolithic period was when people first started farming, and the Bronze Age came after that, when people learned to use bronze. These circles were built by people from a culture that used very large stones for their monuments.
The Boskednan stone circle was first written about in modern times in 1754. This was in a book called Antiquities, historical and monumental, of the County of Cornwall by William Borlase. He wrote that there were 19 stones standing upright at that time.
Later, in 1872, William Copeland Borlase did some digging near the stone circle. He was a descendant of the earlier William Borlase. During his excavations, he found a cist and a burial urn. A cist is a small stone box, and an urn is a pot. These items were from the early Bronze Age. William Copeland Borlase wrote about his discoveries in his book Naenia Cornubiae. This book is all about the ancient monuments in Cornwall.
