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Duloe stone circle
Duloe |
Caradon
NGR: SX 23585 58309 |
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Nestled unobtrusively in the corner of a field beside a Cornish
hedge stands Duloe stone circle, the smallest stone circle in
Cornwall. The flat ridge top on which it lies is flanked half a mile
to either side by deep valleys containing the Looe and West Looe
rivers. The circle is in many respects unique, consisting of eight
large and irregular white quartz blocks set in a pattern of
alternating large and small stones. Seven of the stones are upright
with one fallen. The ‘circle’ appears to have been set out by eye in
an ovoid design, elongated in a north-south direction. There is a
lead lode which outcrops two miles to the north of Duloe which may be
the source of the stones.
Restoration carried out in the mid 1800s included the removal of a
hedge that ran through the middle of the circle and incorporated two
of the original stones. It is also thought that there was some
attempt to re-erect the fallen stone but unfortunately part of it
broke off and the fragment has now vanished from the site. During
this early attempt at restoration, a Bronze Age ribbon handled urn
was discovered which contained cremated human bone. There is some
discrepancy over accounts of this discovery - whether the urn was
found beneath the fallen stone or recovered from the hedge that
bisected the site. WC Borlase inferred from the
discovery that there may have been a raised mound or stony cairn
within the circle and it does seem reasonable to interpret the
monument as the impressive kerb or peristalith of an imposing Bronze
Age burial monument. In support of this it has been noted that there
are no accompanying megalithic monuments in the vicinity and no
alignments to other sites or horizon features, although the stones
do roughly align to the points of the compass suggesting a possible
ceremonial observance of astronomical events.
Shortly after WC Borlase’s publication on Cornish
antiquities (Nænia Cornubiæ, 1872), the site became know as “The Druids Circle” and appears
as such on the Ordnance Survey map of 1880. The connection between
stone circles and the Druid religion was popular in the 17th and
18th centuries, made so in part by the antiquarians John Aubrey and
William Stukeley, but this idea has now been largely discredited.
The nearby settlement of Stonetown, first recorded in 1329 is
probably referring to the stone circle at Duloe. The circle can be
accessed via a signposted track between two houses in Higher
Stonetown to the south-west.
Sources
Barnatt, J, 1982. Prehistoric Cornwall: The Ceremonial Monuments.
Turnstone Press Limited. ISBN 0 85500 129 1
Borlase, WC, 1872. Nænia Cornubiæ.
Payne, R. 1999. The Romance of the Stones:
Cornwall's Pagan Past. Alexander Associates. ISBN 899526 66 8 |
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Ground & Aerial photographs |
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