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England
The Nine MaidensStone Row / Alignment
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The Nine Maidens was marked on my Visitors to Cornwall map but, because of the gloomy evening, it took about three drive by's and ten minutes aimless traipsing before I finally spied the Maidens at the far end of the field. Maybe it was the evening or the light, or that I was alone but I gained a sense of uneasiness approaching the stones, almost forboding. It passed when I reached them and was snapping away. Ironically named, the stones all seem to be male, if you go by the shaping if they were in a circle. They bear the now familiar quartz scarring and stretch some fifty metres in total alignment length. Set at the far end from the road, there is a style for easy access about 200 metres from the layby I parked in. This post appears as part of the weblog entry Jacksprat's Big Old Tour of Mistakes: Cornwall, June 2007
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Posted by jacksprat18th June 2007ce Edited 14th July 2007ce |
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Having just visited the Nine Maidens today I would advise not going after rain! The field was more water than earth. Could I make a request...Please do not make for the stones by hopping over the hedge by the lay by. You will notice that some new fencing has been erected to stop this but people have obviously decided to go around this. If you walk down the road a short distance there is a nice new stile beside a gate leading into the field. You can then follow the official track across the field to the opposit side where the stones are. Sadly today was not the best day to take photos..very gray cloudy day...until I got home and as I sit here now the sun is out and there is hardly a cloud in the sky... |
Posted by Mr Hamhead25th February 2007ce |
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Visited the Maidens Sep 2003, after spotting them on our AA road map, very close to the A39 with a handy layby. It seemed a good stop to make on the way back from Tintagel and the Witchcraft museum at Boscastle. I was a bit dubious about the Maiden's authenticity, I have to say, but maybe that's my natural skepticism... I avoided the stile, as my wife and I had attracted the cows in the field right up to that point in the fence. So I went to a gate a bit further SW down the road. If you walk from there, you pass a few much smaller stones along the edge of a dirt track across the field. Lots of quartz in evidence. The stones seem a bit hap-hazard: Fallen or pushed? Some of them are standing well and are quite large. There's a ditch (with water) that runs alongside them - that probably doesn't help their stability. It all felt a bit lonely and the stile is the only (dodgy) evidence of a public footpath. I was pretty sure I was trespassing. Still, I touched them all for luck, and shan't forget the visit. I've got a photo my wife took from the layby, which I shall try to submit. Don't know what she thought of me, consorting with maidens in a field on our honeymoon... :-) |
Posted by Wilfrid 22nd September 2003ce |
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Nine Maidens Stone Row - 24.12.2002 Before the relatively recent discovery of 8 stone rows on Bodmin Moor and one at Lezant, this superb and intriguing stone row was believed to be the only one in Cornwall. Unlike other stone rows these stones are very large, and are aligned on a menhir 500m to the North East known as the Fiddler / Magi Stone (see separate entry for that). The travel instruction already on this site are excellent, although I would add that t is a small SOS phone, so don't look for a big public phone box. It is a public footpath to the stones, from the stile, which is an interesting up and down affair, rather like mini ramparts of a hill fort. The field was very very sodden when I visited and full of sheep. The northern most stone has amazing streaking of quartz across it. This post appears as part of the weblog entry Adventures in Cornwall & Devon - Part 1
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Posted by pure joy8th January 2003ce Edited 24th February 2003ce |
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Nine Maidens stone row, St. Columb Major. The finest stone row in Cornwall. SW 93636754 - 93696763 In 1605 Richard Carew said:- Wade bridge deliuereth you into waste ground, where 9 long and great stones called The sisters stand in a ranke together, and seem to have been so pitched, for continuing the memory of somewhat, whose notice is yet enuied vs by time. Richard Carew's Survey of Cornwall 1605 |
Posted by phil 27th October 2001ce |
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In a field at side of A39 to Wadebridge, near Columb Major. Go past the woods on the left, then look for layby on right with phone. There is a stile by layby, but hidden. You cannot miss the stones. This is the only alignment of stones within the County of Cornwall. Nine stones remain extending over 300ft. Some big, some small, some fallen. Orientated NE/SW. After eight hours in the motor, dusk here brought me up. Mind the cow shit. |
Posted by CraigR 11th October 2001ce Edited 27th May 2003ce |
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| The nine maiden's may be based on the norse tradition of the nine other worlds as the location of nine maidens folklore in the area of perthshire and angus are in the same area as hog's back tomb stones which are of norse origin . |
Posted by Harlequin 24th February 2002ce |
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Megalithic MysteriesWebpage on Ninemaidens with a photo by Andy Burnham |
Posted by phil 5th December 2001ce |
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