For those of us with a fascination for ancient sacred sites and places of power, few areas of Mother Earth are richer than Cornwall, in the southwest corner of England. Because of this embarasment of riches, a visitor who has only a short time to spend in the area might be confused about which places to visit and which to save for another time.
Amongst all of the holy wells, fogous, dolmens, standing stones and stone circles in Cornwall, Boscawen-Un would have to be very close to the top of my must-see list. Pronounced [Boska-NOON] the Boscawen-Un stone circle is a very popular spot for the local Pagan community to hold ceremonies.
Several years ago there was a rash of vandalism at sacred sites in Cornwall, so the locals decided to do something to help. They held a cleansing ritual at Boscawen-un, sending out healing energy to it and the other nearby sites. The next morning, the news reported that an earthquake measuring 3.8 on the Richter scale had happened, and its eipcentre was directly at Boscawen-un. Coincidence?
Here are excerpts of some impressions that visitors to Boscawen-Un have posted online:
‘magical’ is an over-used word when describing ancient sites but this one really is. My previous experience of a stone circle was Avebury so finding this perfect small circle of nineteen stones with it leaning ‘sun-dial’ centre stone and one white quartz stone was beyond superlatives.
Think of all the superlatives one could lavish upon a place and you have accurately summed up Boskawen-Un.
The proportions of the size of the stones and their intervals and the size they enclose are all just about perfect. Nestled in gorse, they’re not that far from the road but it feels like a different world.
The stones seem to whirl and spin around their madly leaning axis stone.
I’ve had some tremendous experiences at the circle in the daytime, but this I’ll never forget!!, walking down towards the circle in the dark(10pm ish), the whole of the circle was covered in a white dome!, obviously the energies were flowing!, i was suprised to see no-body there at all…. as i entered the circle, it was obvious there was huge enegies present, over the previous few days i’d noticed it building, even to the point of recieving electric shocks off the centre stone!.walking round i did my usual energy sensing using my hands, picking out the energy lines easilier than usual, it was a cloudy nite, very dark but the circle glowed!!, to be honest id say it was alive!, ever stuck a 9 volt batterie on your tongue as a child??, well that was the feeling i was experiecing throughout my body, the centre stone truly was vibrant!, to touch the stone was not needed , simply placing your hand near to the stone resulted in a strong “tingle”.standing there in front of it it seemed to grow and tower over myself, showing its true might …the quartz stone always exudes strong energy in my opinion!, to sit against it usually results in an almost guaranteed altered state of conciousness for myself!, tonight was no exeption!, the whole circle being of absolute silence, i sat there for a while unerved by the fact i was in the middle of nowhere basically.
Has to be the best circle in Lands end, if you only visit one, make it this one! The quartz (female, surely) stone bears close inspection as it is shot through with nooks and crannies containg miniature crystal grottoes. A great place.
Body Mind Spirit Journeys is offering a tour of sacred sites in southwest England which includes the Boscawen-Un stone circle. For details, go to: http://bodymindspiritjourneys.com/englands-sacred-sites.html
You can read more about Boscawen-Un at http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/site/229/boscawenun.html