tregaseal stone circle

tregaseal stone circle complex

the stone circle at tregeseal now stands alone on the gentle slopes of truthwall common to the south of the rocky outcrop carn kenidjack but originally it was part of a ritual complex comprising two and possibly three circles in a roughly east-west alignment. alternative names for the complex are ‘the dancing stones’ and ‘the nine maidens’, in common with many of the cornish stone circles and possibly suggestive of their original function.

the most westerly of the three circles was detected through raf aerial photographs fin 1947, it is much smaller in diameter than the other two and could possibly depict a hut circle instead.

the middle circle has undergone consistent deterioration and field clearance to the extent that today only one visible upright remains within the cornish stone hedge surrounding the field in which it once stood. it had the largest diameter and contained ten stones in 1885, only a single stone is to be found standing today

the eastern circle probably consisted of about 21 stone uprights initially. these have undergone substantial restoration and rebuilding over many years so that whilst nineteen uprights are present today, only the stones in the eastern half of the circle are likely to be in their original position.