21st June 2023
The Merry Maidens Stone Circle (also known as Rosemodress Circle, Boleigh Circle, Dawns Men, and Danse Maen/Dans Maen/Dons Meyn - 'Stone Dance') is a stunning restored stone circle just past Pennsans near the small village of Nansmornow.
The stones of the true circle are at least bronze age but more likely Neolithic, but it was restored with the righting of a few fallen stones in the 1860s. It is reportedly complete, but there is a space facing the east that could either have been a ritual entrance or the site of a missing stone.
The tallest of the stones are in the south west, and the smallest directly opposite in the south east. The circle lays on a path that includes Gun Rith & Barnatt's Stone.
There are a handful of myths about the stones, primary being that the Merry Maidens were 19 women dancing on the Sabbath and were turned to stone (this tale also implicates the Pipers stones not far away). Legends of naughty dancers turning to stone are common with stone circles the country over, and well into England & the other Celtic Nations.
megalithic.co.uk