Tregeseal East stone circle facts for kids
Tregeseal East stone circle with Carn Kenidjack beyond
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 Location in Southwest Cornwall
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| Location | near St Just |
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| Region | Cornwall, |
| Coordinates | 50°8′1.39″N 5°39′30.67″W / 50.1337194°N 5.6585194°W |
| Type | Stone circle |
| Site notes | |
| Condition | largely intact |
| Public access | Yes |
| Website | https://www.cornishancientsites.com/ancient-sites/tregeseal-stone-circle/ |
Tregeseal East is an ancient stone circle in Cornwall, England. It's about one mile northeast of the town of St Just. This special place has nineteen large granite stones. People sometimes call them The Dancing Stones! It's the only stone circle left from a group of three that once stood here. They were lined up from east to west on a hillside near Carn Kenidjack.
Contents
Where is Tregeseal East?
The Tregeseal East stone circle is in western Cornwall. You can find it north of the road that goes from Penzance to St Just. It's also about one kilometer east of a small village called Tregeseal.
How Was It Built?
The stone circle is made of 19 large granite blocks. These stones are between 1.0 and 1.4 meters tall. They form a rough circle about 21 meters wide. It's thought that two stones might be missing today. This is because the circle probably had 21 stones a long time ago.
Over many centuries, people have worked on and repaired the stone circle. Because of this, only the stones on the eastern side might still be in their original spots.
Part of a Bigger Area
The Tregeseal stone circle was part of a much larger special area. This area was similar to the one around another famous site called The Merry Maidens. It might have had three stone circles in total. These circles were generally lined up from east to west. The other two circles were to the west of the one we see today.
One of the possible western circles was seen in old aerial photos from 1947. If it was a circle, it was much smaller than the others. It might even have been an old hut circle instead. The middle stone circle was once the largest. In 1885, it had ten stones, but today only one stone remains standing there.
History of the Stone Circle
Stone circles like Tregeseal East were built a very long time ago. This happened in the late Neolithic period (New Stone Age) or early Bronze Age. They were made by people who built large stone structures, known as a Megalithic culture.
The first time this stone circle was written about was in 1754. This was in a book by William Borlase called Antiquities, historical and monumental, of the County of Cornwall. He wrote that there were 17 stones standing upright at that time.
Early Drawings and Records
An early drawing of the site was made by William Cotton in 1827. You can find it in his book Illustrations of Stone Circles, Cromlehs and other remains of the Aboriginal Britons in the West of Cornwall. Back then, some stones from the other nearby circles could still be seen.
Later, in 1872, William Copeland Borlase wrote about the site in his book Naenia Cornubia. He reported that there were 15 stones. He also showed the exact spot where each stone was located.
