The Hurlers Stone Circle
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The megalithic complex known as the Hurlers stands near to the village of Minions on Bodmin Moor. There are three large stone circles laid out in a line and two outlying stones, The Pipers, standing close together at the west. The alignment of the circle centres is not exact, a line through the northernmost circles missing the centre of the southern circle by 8m. The circle stones are all of local granite and some have been shaped by hammering. There is some suggestion that the circles may have been height graded to the south, but the damage endured by the rings makes this difficult to prove. With no dating evidence, there is no way to tell if the three circles were built at the same time, but one view on multiple sites is that an original single ring was added to over time as customs and ritual use changed. Assuming that this is correct, the middle circle at the Hurlers is thought most likely to have been the original "seed". |
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The name "The Hurlers" comes from yet another dose of petrification from above, dealt out by an angry God in response to violation of His Sabbath day. In this neck of the woods, it is usually some wayward girlies having a bit of a cavort on a Sunday that feature as the lucky winners in the old "instant statue" sweepstakes, but in the case of The Hurlers, the victims were all male. Legend has it that the lads were engaged in a local pastime called hurling, this involves two large teams trying to grab a wooden ball from each other, but as they were playing on a Sunday, they got zapped. |
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The Stones are about 12 miles from Launceston at Minions. There are three walks on the moor and the tall building above is now an information centre. The village of Minions has tearooms and gift shops available. Well worth a visit |
You can find more information on the stones and many others in the country by visiting. www.megalithics.com |
