Page:VCH Cornwall 1.djvu/469

 STONE CIRCLES Two circles are situated about a mile from St. Just-in-Penwith, on the southern slope of the rough and boulder-strewn Carn Kenidjack. They lie east and west of each other, their supposed centres 150 ft. apart, and are divided by a hedge, into which are built some stones of the western circle. The eastern circle stands on the common and is the more perfect of the two, though, owing to its incomplete condition, we can only state its diameter as about 66 ft. 6 in. ; thirteen stones remain out of nineteen or twenty, seven of them standing and six fallen ; the largest is only 4 ft. high. All are of granite, hewn no doubt from the blocks with which the moor is strewn. The condition of this circle is unsatisfactory, but that of the western one is worse. Its probable diameter is 74 ft. ; five stones only remain erect, and of these three are built into the aforesaid hedge ; five are prostrate, one being split, and to make the confusion worse many granite blocks, cleared from the field, have been thrown in among the fallen stones of the circle. A group of unshaped boulder-like stones forms a semicircle round No. 21 in the plan, and beyond this again is a cairn of small stones, not apparently connected with the circle. W. Cotton shows this enclosure in his plan S.w. N.E HOLED STONES NEAR fee.* (1826), and the Rev. John Buller also depicted it sixteen years later. The object of this enclosure must be more or less conjectural, but we find a structure rather like it within the ring of Keswick Circle, on the east side ; of the Keswick example ' nothing remains,' says Mr. Dymond, ' to show for what purpose this chamber was constructed,' l but later in- vestigation suggests a sepulchral origin. Rather more than a quarter of a mile away, in a north-easterly direction, there stand by the side of the footpath leading to the North St. Just road four holed stones, sketches of which are here given. There is no apparent connexion between these stones and the circles, but as there were three holed stones at Dawns Men these particular examples should also be mentioned. They have been described and figured by J. T. Blight 8 and by Lukis and Borlase. 3 W. C. Lukis remarks : ' From their arrangement in a line north-east and south-west I conclude that they all formed together one monument ' ; while R. N. Worth suggests that the monument was a prosaic fence rail, hardly taking into account 1 Journ. Brit. Arch. Ass. March, 1878. ' Arch. Camb. (1864), loc. cit. 1 Prehistoric Monuments, pp. 17, *7, and pi. xxxiii. I 385 49