The Hurlers Stone Circle View all content for The Hurlers

Access: Pretty easy. By road, head for the small village of Minions off the B3254 near Liskeard. The Hurlers and the Pipers are on the NW side of the road at the SW end of the village. There is a car park that might get quite busy peak season (with attached barely recognisable cairn). The stones are about 200 yards (tops) across relatively flat grassy moor and are not at all overgrown. May be boggy in wet weather. There is also a roughish track that runs just to the SE of the circles, but this is probably no better for access to the circles. It does lead straight to the Pipers though. (And on towards the Craddock Moor circle etc). Saturday 6 March 2004 What a place to start off my first Cornwall trip in around 8 years! My memories of the place turned out to be really hazy - I didn't remember it being so impressive! It came up as a candidate for somewhere to stop on the way to the Land's End peninsula, simply because I really wanted Jane to see Trethevy Quoit. As the Hurlers are so close, it seemed like a viable 'addition', though I wasn't that enthusiastic. In fact, I was more interested in the neighbouring Rillaton Barrow, just because I hadn't seen it before! Of course I've read a fair amount about the Hurlers since that first visit and seen the pics on here, so I should've known to expect more. After all, it's not everywhere that you get to see 3 stone circles in a row with a couple of nice 'probable' outliers (see the Pipers and a prominent 'proto-temple'!!! Actually seeing the Hurlers again though, I saw that my memory it as 'scrappy' and 'wrecked' was far fom the truth. OK, the south circle is largely gone but its presence is clear. And the other 2 are a bit 'knocked-about', but far more complete than I expected. Along with the setting, this all makes for a pretty damn spectacular 'monument'! With the weather changing constantly as the dark but broken clouds scudded across the sun, the 'atmosphere' of the site seemed to change from moment to moment. Picturesque and welcoming, to bleak and unfriendly in seconds. Considering the proximity of the village, it's amazing how remote the site can feel after a short time there. It is impossible to overlook the presence of the Cheesewring, though it's far enough away that it doesn't dominate the site, and isn't exactly an integral part of it in the way of say, the Cnoc an Tursa at Callanish, or the Gorsedd at Bryn Celli Ddu. Its significance is surely indisputable, however, and seems clearly to have been part of the overall 'vision' of the place. If you visit, do make sure you walk up to the Cheesewring and Rillaton Barrow if you can! We didn't make it to Craddock Moor stone circle and other sites on the moor, as we still had quite a distance to go before journey's end (and Trethevy Quoit was calling). We did stop briefly at the Long Tom christianised menhir though, as we were passing.

Posted by Moth 3rd April 2004ce Edited 4th May 2004ce

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