The Merry Maidens

The Merry Maidens, also known as Dawn's Men, is a late neolithic stone circle located  to the south of the village of St Buryan, in Cornwall. A pair of standing stones, The Pipers is associated both geographically and in legend.

The circle, which is thought to be complete, comprises nineteen granite megaliths. The stones are approximately 1.2 metres high, with the tallest standing 1.4 metres. They are spaced three to four metres apart with a larger gap between the stones on the east side. The circle is approximately twenty-four metres in diameter.

The local myth about the creation of the stones suggests that nineteen maidens were turned into stone as punishment for dancing on a Sunday (Dans Maen translates as Stone Dance). The Pipers, two megaliths some distance north-east of the circle, are said to be the petrified remains of the musicians who played for the dancers. A more detailed story explains why the Pipers are so far from the Maidens – apparently the two pipers heard the church clock in St Buryan strike midnight, realised they were breaking the Sabbath, and started to run up the hill away from the maidens who carried on dancing without accompaniment. These petrification legends are often associated with stone circles, as is reflected in the folk names of some of the nearby sites, for example, the Tregeseal Dancing Stones, the Nine Maidens of Boskednan, as well as the more distant Hurlers and Pipers on Bodmin Moor. Another tradition says that The Pipers were erected to commemorate Howel and Æthelstan, leaders who died in a 10th-century battle.

References:

• Wikipedia

Address

St Buryan, Penwith, United Kingdom

Details

Founded: 2500-1500 BCE
Category: Prehistoric and archaeological sites in United Kingdom