Pilgrimage to Boscawen un stone circle

Travelling south-westwards from Penzance, on the main road towards Land's End, we pass places with unfamiliar names... Buryas, Lower and Higher Drift, Catchall, Trennuggo - and, if we are not very careful, Boscawen-un.

The sudden appearance of an eleven foot tall standing stone beyond the top of the stone hedge to our right is enough to distract our attention from the task at hand, which is to locate the entrance to Boscawen-un farm. This, shortly after, and on the opposite side of the road, is easy to miss.

We turn in to the narrow farm track, and leave our vehicle - to follow the discreet signpost which indicates our way along the track past Boscawen-un farm. As we approach the farm the track veers to the right and becomes more narrow and overgrown.

Tall, swaying grasses and wild flowers colour the lush undergrowth along our way. On each side the track is lined with cornish stone hedges, which conspire to make the path seem narrower, the further along it that we go. We recognise the power of the earth-dragon that slows our stride along this ancient Pilgrim Way. The closely-growing bushes obscure the view, and it is with surprise that we arrive at the legendary stone circle of Boscawen-un.

The circle consists of a ring of nineteen stones, one of which is a block of white quartz. At the centre of the circle a tall standing stone is firmly embedded at a inclined angle. Walking the circle we are in awe of the wonderfully invigorating feeling which the circle inspires. The long and flower-scented path of discovery has prepared us well for this, and we touch the stones to sense the power that they give - listening to the silence of the stones - and we feel their energy vibrating with our own inner rhythms... a truly special experience.

Boscawen-un circle is named in the "Welsh Triads" as one of the three druid Gorsedds of Britain (John Michell, Secrets of the Stones).

This is a major point on the St Michael alignment as described by Paul Broadhurst and Hamish Miller in The Sun and the Serpent and by John Michell in The View over Atlantis.

Ithel Colquhoun's description in The Living Stones is particularly evocative, as is John Michell's in The Old Stones of Lands End.

Nearby are the holy wells at Madron and Sancreed as well as the Giant's Rock logan stone at Zennor and Lanyon Quoit dolmen and Carn Euny fogou.

The Gorsedd Circle
It is the tradition to erect a stone circle for a gorsedd, on the summit of a mound, the stones places so that a person may stand in the space between each pair. The space between those stones opposite to the direction of the sunrise are set wider apart as an entrance way wide enough to to allow for the passage of at least three people. An outlier, sometimes referred to as a "station stone" is set at a distance of "three fathoms or of three times three fathoms" due east of the circle. The position of the rising sun at the summer solstice is marked by a further outier, set to the north of the primary station stone. The position of the rising sun at the winter solstice is marked by a further outier, set to the south of the primary station stone.

Resources:
The Old Stones of Lands End, John Michell
The View over Atlantis, John Michell
The Living Stones, Ithel Colquhoun
The Sun and the Serpent, Paul broadhurst & Hamish Miller
Secrets of the Stones, John Michell
Stone Circles