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Fieldnotes
| BOSCAWEN-UN Site visit 3rd September 2012 Travelling westwards on the A30 toward Land’s End and just prior to the turning right to Sancreed, you will see a rectangular double-brown sign at the entrance to a driveway on the left with Boscawenoon and Chyandwens Farmhouse written on them. https://picasaweb.google.com/100525707086862773355/Sign?authkey=Gv1sRgCMeCmdr3uuGXOg#5786107750162643298 It is a public footpath but a driveway as well up to the aforementioned properties. I drove up very nearly to the farm until reaching a very nice long pull-in on the right adjacent to a tall pointed standing stone built into the hedge/wall. https://picasaweb.google.com/100525707086862773355/PointyStandingStone?authkey=Gv1sRgCO_L6YO00rLDkQE#5786072636533751618 We (the dogs and I) then walked down the driveway passing some farm buildings on the left and followed the driveway around to the right and past a house and a building described as a ‘goat shed’ on a sign. We continued on and came to a divide in the driveway with a vertical sign between the two declaring Boscawen-un was straight ahead! https://picasaweb.google.com/100525707086862773355/Sign02?authkey=Gv1sRgCLLD6ZmL68AS#5786075139480626370 Take the path to the right which is like a high-hedged alleyway. Midway along you will come to a stile on the left showing the right of way but don’t go over it keep straight on up the alleyway until reaching the Boscawen-un stone circle gate and sign on the left. https://picasaweb.google.com/100525707086862773355/Sign2?authkey=Gv1sRgCPauu9LBseqOmwE#5786077122101774018 MAGICAL was the word that popped into my head on seeing the circle as it truly is. This is a ‘good place’ as indicated by my dog Chief who ‘reads’ sites really well and immediately ran from stone to stone investigating in a happy manner. It’s not always like this with him. Not a soul other than us present and quiet as could be and the site as tidy as I have ever seen one. The message may be getting through at last! The circle itself in a lovely sheltered setting sat there in complete serenity. The stones are pretty much regular in size/height with just either one missing or the space an entrance possibly and of course the well-known leaning off-centre stone such a feature. It looks ‘worked’ to me with a central spine forming two upper faces. If I know little of a site prior to a visit, I tend to not swot up on it so that I go with no preconceived ideas in my head, so that I can form my own opinion first before it becomes polluted with the usual bog standard interpretations. The spine on the leaning stone certainly gives one the impression that it was meant to be ‘pointing’ but that is pure speculation on my part. Whatever, it is a truly wonderful site to visit. As I left the site through the gated entrance a couple of young ladies with multi-coloured hair:-) were approaching from further up the ‘alleyway’ loaded up with camping gear, so presumable the public footpath also extends back to a road somewhere further along the way. A few photos: https://picasaweb.google.com/100525707086862773355/BoscawenCircle?authkey=Gv1sRgCPbanpf0mPnnygE#5786080117076506018 Roy |
Posted by Sanctuary 9th September 2012ce Edited 9th September 2012ce
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Comments (3) |
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| Great notes again, The other way you mention at the end is the shortest way in from a car, you park a bit further along the A30 [ at the caspn gravestone ] and a path goes past the Creeg-Tol outcrop down to the circle, the area you walk though is littered with old walls and settlement sites, i've counted in the winter the markings of about 6 neolithic or bronze age huts between boscawen un and the road. |
Posted by bladup10th September 2012ce |
| Oh right, thanks bladup, I'll try that way next time. Sounds a really interesting route. Cheers. |
Posted by Sanctuary 10th September 2012ce |
| About half the distance you walked as well, it's worth it if just for the creeg- tol outcrop as it has quite recently been cleared and has ancient homesteads attached to it, and is a lovely place in it's own right and on the way to the circle anyway, and you know it's always rewarding visiting stone circles from different directions as that's one of the reasons why they are there, ancient paths [ at least 3 ] would meet at them, even before the circles the paths were still there, in the ancient woods, sometimes made by animals feet even before humans got there, meeting at glades, as it's probably at the glades that the circles and henges ended up being built. |
Posted by bladup 10th September 2012ce |
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