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The Pipers (Boleigh)Standing Stones
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On 3rd of Feb this year after a look around The Merry Maidens and Tregiffian Burial Chamber, I finally found The Pipers. i think previous visits to the area had always been in the months where there is more growth in the hedgerows so never managed to peek them whilst driving on the road past. I clambered over the gate next to the road to get a closer look and was thoroughly surprised just how massive they are up close, really impressive stones! |
Posted by Beebon 7th February 2015ce |
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The last day of our holiday (24.6.2011) and the weather is not exactly promising - much as it has been throughout really! We haven't managed to do the usual open-top bus tour around the peninsula yet, so decide to brave the forecast and go for it, combining with a fleeting stop-off at The Pipers and Merry Maidens. The number 1 bus (the closed top double decker) drops us near Boleigh Farm, and it's a quick hop over the gate to see the Pipers. Although we pass them often, this will be the first actual visit for over 10 years. My, haven't they grown? Well no actually. I think I've just got smaller. These are the whoppingest standing stones you could wish for, despite the lean on the NE stone it's still a giant. The granite is marked with various vertical cracks and shows no sign of having been worked or shaped. They are what they are, these two. If it's necessary to play favourites, I prefer the SW stone, as it has a nice chunky-from-one-side/pointy-from-the-other aspect to it. Sadly it starts to rain while we're here, so we head back onto the road for the short walk round to Merry Maidens... |
Posted by thesweetcheat18th July 2011ce |
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Visited 12.4.10. These beasts are MASSIVE. Must be at least 12ft high and standing about 100 metres apart in separate fields. Access is easy. Park in entrance to field on the B3315. The first (slightly larger) stone is 50 metres from the entrance into a flat but muddy field. Just before the stone is a gate to your right which gives access to the field in which the other stone stands. As I pondered these two stones a jet flew overhead - I bet these two stones could tell a tale or two?! Definitely worth stopping for a look when visiting the Merry Maidens. |
Posted by CARL 22nd April 2010ce |
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The Pipers – 23.12.2002 These huge stones can be seen from the B3315 road. No official public footpaths close by. Presumably on the land of Boleigh Farm. |
Posted by pure joy16th January 2003ce |
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September 2000. These guys could give ya a complex. I'll say no more on the subject. They are short distance over the hill from The Merry Maidens. The fiist thing ya'll see is their HEADS pokin' over the hedges below. Had a great chat with an old local chap who was full of stories about witches & the Fogou in the nearby village of Boleigh. He knew loads about the sites, deserted villages & what-not in the area. |
Posted by Schlager Man 6th February 2002ce Edited 6th September 2005ce |
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A few minutes' walk from the Fogou, immediately after passing the wretched little hamlet of Boleigh, brings the tourist to the two remarkable stones called the Pipers; giant musicians turned into stone for playing on the sabbath to the dance at which the Merry Maidens were similarly transformed.From Rambles in Western Cornwall by the Footsteps of the Giants by J O Halliwell-Phillipps (1861). |
Posted by Rhiannon7th August 2013ce |
Although in most cases the gigantic standing stones wherever found, mark the site of graves, this is not invariably the case, for of "the Pipers," two huge Cornish monoliths, Mr Borlase says he could find no trace of a sepulchral origin after careful examination. These "Pipers," which measure 15 feet and 13 feet 6 inches in height, stand 85 yards apart, pointing north-east and south-west, and about 260 yards in the latter direction lies the circle called the Nine Maidens, or popularly the Dance (Dawns) Maidens, with which they are traditionally associated, since the legend says the DAnce Maidens were girls turned into stone for dancing on Sunday, the "Pipers" having been the musicians on that memorable occasion.p 148 in Notes on Some Cornish and Irish Pre-Historic Monuments. A. W. Buckland The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 9. (1880), pp. 146-166. |
Posted by Rhiannon 14th November 2006ce Edited 14th November 2006ce |
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There is a very basic campsite just over the hedge from the Pipers. Just a field and a toilet plus shower. All you need really. Penzance is not too far away if you do need anything and you have the whole of Penwith to explore close at hand. If you do find you have some spare time after visiting all the sites from TMA then just take a walk along the coast path from Penberth Cove or Lamorna to St Loy's Cove where you will find a tea shop/Cafe that serves wonderful home grown food. Other places worth visiting include Porthgwarra right down on the South West tip where caves have been cut through the cliffs to reachthe beach and as you head west round the headland you come across a giant hole and some of the most dramatic cliffs in Cornwall. And don't go to Lands End! |
Posted by Mr Hamhead28th July 2002ce |
| The north east menhir is the tallest standing stone in Cornwall (5.05 metres) |
Posted by phil 8th December 2001ce Edited 24th March 2013ce |
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