Network Nodes - Ancient Penwith | Cornwall

Ancient Penwith
The prehistoric landscape of West Penwith, the Land's End peninsula, Cornwall
Ancient Penwith
Ancient Penwith
The prehistoric landscape of the Land's End Peninsula
Ancient Penwith
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Network Nodes

Network Nodes


Now we come to examining some of the major alignment centres of West Penwith, to see how such power points work, geomantically. The sites covered below do not make for a comprehensive list - they are examples of different kinds of major nodes in the system.

Sites covered:

Foreground: Trencrom Hill. Background: Carn Brea

Carn Brea, above Camborne, is a major Neolithic site going back at least to 3700 BCE. Judging by the alignments connecting it with key sites around Cornwall, and remembering that it sits on the Michael Line, Carn Brea is rather like a geomantic switching point between West Penwith and upcountry.

Alignment 80, a backbone alignment, goes from Carn Brea to Trencrom Hill, then to Lanyon Quoit and then to Botallack Common cairn in the Tregeseal complex, connecting four significant sites. This alignment defines the position of Lanyon Quoit and plugs into the Tregeseal complex. The other two major sites on the alignment are both Neolithic tors, pre-existing Lanyon Qoiut and Tregeseal.

A similar alignment, 108, goes from Carn Brea to St Michael’s Mount, then to the Merry Maidens and on to Treryn Dinas. Four major sites in an exact straight line – that’s what's meant by a backbone alignment. Since three of these sites are prominent natural features - two Neolithic tors and one cliff sanctuary - this implies that the Merry Maidens stone circle is located where it is in order to strengthen this alignment and to make use of it. It gave the Bronze Age Merry Maidens a sense of rootedness in ancient heritage to be aligned with Neolithic base sites, which from the perspective of the Bronze Age were built in ancient times, a millennium earlier.

Carn Brea was a Neolithic trading site, particularly in arrowheads, axeheads and pottery, drawing on sources in the Lizard and Penwith and exporting them upcountry. It was clearly a sacred centre too, judging by the alignments going through it.
For a detailed online map, click here.
Radial alignments around Carn Brea, CornwallMany cliff sanctuaries in mid-Cornwall are radially aligned with Carn Brea – itself quite a feat, considering they are all natural sites.

In four cases cliff sanctuaries lie at both ends of these radial alignments, and exactly so (alignments 201, 203, 204 and MC23 - see online map).

Other alignments passing through Carn Brea go to cliff sanctuaries in one direction and Bronze Age stone circles, menhirs or hilltops in the other – suggesting that the Bronze Age sites were deliberately located to align with Carn Brea and the cliff sanctuary behind it.

Here a common quirk of cliff sanctuaries is revealed. They were selected not because they were prominent as headlands (though some are) but because they were aligned with other cliff sanctuaries and Neolithic sites (which most seem to be).

Some prominent headlands are not cliff sanctuaries (Halzephron Cliff, Godrevy Head and St Agnes Head) and some cliff sanctuaries aren’t prominent (Gunwalloe, Little Dennis or Kilcobben Cove in the Lizard, or Maen Castle in West Penwith). Thus, a headland’s prominence didn’t automatically make it a cliff sanctuary.
Trencrom Hill
Tor Crom, Crooked or Hunched Tor

Trencrom HillTrencrom, a Neolithic tor, Iron Age hill camp and focal site on the edge of Penwith, is at the meeting point of six significant alignments. It’s clearly a base site. It holds a strategic, geomantically significant position at the eastern threshold of the peninsula.

This threshold energy-boundary is marked by a nearly north-south backbone alignment (0.7° E of N) from St Michael’s Mount to Trencrom Hill and St Ives Head. Remarkably these are three natural hills that are aligned.

Three roughly east-west backbone alignments pass through Trencrom Hill:
  • 80 from Carn Brea to the Tregeseal complex, visits Trencrom Hill, Carfury menhir, Lanyon Quoit and Boswens menhir (Carfury and Boswens are both relay menhirs);
  • 92 from Roundwood Fort, a cliff sanctuary south of Truro above the River Fal, passes through Trencrom Hill and Mulfra Quoit, ending at the Nine Maidens stone circle;
  • 124 comes from Nare Head, a cliff sanctuary in Roseland, through Stithians Moor menhir in the Carnmenellis uplands, the Wendron Nine Maidens stone circles and Gear Round in Kerrier, over Trencrom Hill to Carn Galva and Pendeen Watch cliff sanctuary.

Four further alignments are present at Trencrom:
  • 152 from Gurnard’s Head through Trencrom to Rosemullion Head on the Lizard, associating two cliff sanctuaries;
  • 126 from Trendrine cairns above St Ives to Trencrom Hill, Godolphin Hill and the Three Brothers of Grugwith near Coverack – one of the near-parallel Lizard-to-Penwith alignments mentioned earlier;
  • 104 from Trencrom Hill to the Merry Maidens through the Redhouse NE menhir;
  • 105 from Trencrom Hill through the Drift NW menhir to Tol Pedn Penwith, then to Wolf Rock eleven miles offshore.

Trencrom Hill is a key hub site, an axis, a fulcrum on Penwith’s eastern threshold. St Michael's Mount shares this quality: both are gateway nodes between Penwith and upcountry – they regulate connectivity into and out of West Penwith.
Carrek los y'n cos, SW 5143 2984

St Michael's Mount is the key geomantic centre for Penwith, of national and global significance. It has a big visual impact and presence when seen from around Penwith and Mount's Bay. It lies close (one mile) to a global great circle line, the Michael Line (that's close enough for a global line). However, it lies exactly on another interesting alignment between The Hurlers stone circle in Bodmin Moor and Tol Pedn Penwith, the southwesternmost peninsula of Britain.

The Apollo line, tracked by Hamish Miller and Paul Broadhurst from Skellig Michael in Ireland to Megiddo, Israel, passes over Watch Croft, Penwith's highest hill, through St Michael's Mount and then the geomantically nodal Pedngwinian Barrow on the Lizard, before streaking off to France.

Backbone alignments fan out from the Mount, particularly to cliff sanctuaries encircling Penwith. Three of Penwith's four stone circles are aligned with it - the exception being Tregeseal, which is distinctly west-facing. In the Neolithic and early Bronze Age it was an upstanding crag surrounded by woods, becoming an island around 1800 BCE, possibly in a tsunami.

St Michael’s Mount is a national node. In Penwith, it's pretty much the peninsula’s most important alignment centre. Backbone alignments go to:
  • Carn Brea, the Merry Maidens and Treryn Dinas (108),
  • Boscawen-ûn, Maen Castle and Samson Hill on Bryher, Scilly (78);
  • Pordenack Point and Pig Rock on St Mary’s, Scilly (196);
  • Cape Cornwall via Botrea Barrows (77);
  • Pendeen Watch via Lanyon Quoit (103);
  • Bosigran Castle via Carn Galva (107);
  • Trencrom Hill and St Ives Head (59);
  • Godolphin Hill and Rame Head, near Plymouth (MC32);
  • the Merrivale complex in Dartmoor (EC35);
  • the Trippet Stones on Bodmin Moor (211), and
  • Pendennis Point (Pen Dynas), a cliff sanctuary at Falmouth, progressing as far as Start Point in Devon (207).



Power places are suffused with a certain natural power, and they are also pervaded with place-memory – like a recorded imprint of whatever has happened there over time. Much has happened at St Michael’s Mount over at least six millennia, and its atmosphere is thus flavoured by those events, many of them long gone and forgotten. As a Neolithic site it was probably idyllic, with the equable climate of the time. It has hosted a small village for millennia – a good place for fishing, trading and retreat, at different times. It was busy right up to the development of Penzance after the arrival of the railway in the 1860s.

Even the Mount's minor alignments are interesting, of which here are some examples: alignment 75 goes to a line of three menhirs at Chyenhal (only one of which survives today) aligned exactly on the Mount, further proceeding through Bojewans Carn to the now removed Trevorian menhir – a Bronze Age alignment. Alignment 164 passes through Lesingey Round to Ballowall Barrow. Alignment 81 passes from Cudden Point cliff sanctuary through the Mount to Gulval churchyard (formerly an Iron Age round) to the Nine Maidens stone circle and the Four Parishes Stone.

There are no signs of prehistoric warfare at the island except for a hoard of copper weapons from the late Bronze Age found nearby at Marazion. These could be ceremonial, since copper looks nice but it is too pliable for weaponry. In more recent times, the castle and monastery were fought over on a few occasions between 1193 and 1646. These were national oligarchic troubles rather than Cornish conflicts. Even so, it was defensible for sure, not easy to attack.

St Michael’s Mount is a special place, nowadays rather sanitised by National Trust tourist provisions. Best visited outside the main tourist season, you can walk across at low tide or catch a boat from Marazion. Throughout history, the Mount has possibly been the most visited place in Penwith, by outsiders.
Tor of the Sages, on a slope south of Ding Dong Mine (SW 4400 3399)

This menhir stands on the side (not the top) of a ridge, in a place where one wouldn’t expect a strategically placed menhir. A little tricky to find, it seems to have been put there for no visible reason. But there indeed are reasons.

There’s a chance it was a double menhir (rare in the north of the peninsula) – a recumbent stone lies in the hedge below, and it could be its partner. It stands 40 metres away from backbone alignment 80, going from Boswens menhir to Carn Brea, and the second menhir was possibly located on this alignment, where it crosses alignment 114 from Gurnard’s Head to Kemyel Point.



Carfury is on several local alignments, some passing through it and some terminating there – so it is a hub, a relay and a terminus, but not a base site – it has been placed there for distinctly geomantic reasons to augment the system as a whole.

  • 114. Gurnards Head - Bosporthennis Quoit - Carfury menhir - Chyenhal E menhir - Castallack menhir.
  • 218. Carfury menhir - Tredinnick 2 cairn - Bosporthennis menhir.
  • 33. Carfury menhir - Bishop's Head and Foot boundary stone - Lady Downs stone - Towednack A tumulus.
  • 32. Lady Downs B cairn - Mulfra Vean ancient village - Boskednan 6 cairn -  Carfury menhir - Mount Whistle boundary stone - Penhale  2 boundary stone - Penhale 1 boundary stone - Botrea Barrows D.
  • 80. The Brisons offshore rocks - Tregeseal complex - Truthwall Common C  cairn - Boslow cairn - Lanyon Quoit - Carfury menhir - Trenowin cairn - Trencrom Hill - Lelant 1  cairn - Fenton Saurus holy well - Coldharbour  Cairn - Rosewarne Manor iron age enclosure - Carn Brea.
  • 56. Chûn Quoit - Chûn Castle - Carfury menhir.
  • A07. Carfury menhir - St Michael's Mount - Cudden Point. Samhain-Imbolc sunrise alignment.

It is a classic proxy menhir for the Nine Maidens and Carn Galva, northwards. Its position on the side of a hill is peculiar except for this: St Michael’s Mount is very visible, with Cudden Point cliff sanctuary right behind it, and this orientation is aligned to the Beltane-Lammas sunrise point as seen from Carfury. So while this menhir clearly is put there as a spatial stake-out, it’s a temporal one too.
House in the Clearing (or Cutting), on Botrea Hill (SW 403 313)

These four large, flat-topped Bronze Age platform barrows, surrounded by a cairnfield of smaller barrows, are more significant than they first appear. The boggy, furzy moorland scene atop Botrea Hill today is not the parkland it would have been in the Bronze Age.

With a remarkably wide panorama, Botrea Barrows are intervisible with a large number of quite distant sites, including St Michael’s Mount, Carn Brea, and pretty much all of the Neolithic tors and major hills in Penwith except Trencrom (obscured by Castle an Dinas).

Botrea BarrowsIn terms of alignments, the Botrea Barrows are one of the ten most important sites in Penwith. This focal site is a secondary base site with geomantic significance. Many noteworthy alignments between base sites around Penwith pass through the barrows.

The barrows sit on an alignment between St Michael’s Mount and Cape Cornwall, on a ridgetop watershed. Another alignment goes from Tol Pedn Penwith to Watch Croft and Gurnard’s Head; one from Pendeen Watch to Kemyel Point, and another from the Brisons and Ballowall Barrow through Botrea Barrows and Godolphin Hill, leading eventually to Pendennis Point, a cliff sanctuary in Falmouth.

Botrea Barrows act as a hinge between the two main clusters of sites in the north and south of Penwith. The barows are central in the peninsula, lying on an ancient trackway leading from the Nine Maidens, Chûn and Tregeseal to Boscawen-ûn and eventually to the Merry Maidens. But they are not a primary base site comparable with Chapel Carn Brea, Carn Kenidjack or Chûn Castle - they can be considered a secondary base site, with a strong geomantic positioning that make them a hub for alignments linking many cliff sanctuaries. Spend an hour on one of them and you’ll find they definitely have energy. But go on a balmy, windless day.
Iunci’s Court – take Lesingey Lane off the A3071 (SW 454 304)

Many assume that, since this site is called a ‘round’, it must be a round. It is round though not circular, though it is neither a round nor is it a hillfort. It’s a banked settlement, raised on its own hill, levelled inside, and while it could be defended it’s unlikely to be intended as a fort. It is likely to have been a ceremonial and a village site at different times in its multi-millennium history - some remains found there go back to the Mesolithic.

Lesingey is quite a happy place, special and rather unique, worth visiting in May during bluebell time. The trees somewhat obscure the settlement’s extent and layout but they lend a leafy character to the place. I find it’s not difficult to feel the people who lived here 2-3 millennia ago – it was good for a village of fiftyish people. Its inhabitants were probably connected with those on Leskudjack Castle, not far away. Though attributed to the Iron Age, in the Neolithic I suspect it was a ceremonial and geomantic centre.

This camp has a lot of alignments passing through and tangenting it, some longer and some shorter.

Two backbone alignments pass through its centre: one from Bartinney Castle goes as far as a cliff sanctuary at Berry Head, Torbay, in Devon; the other passes from Carn Lês Boel as far as Stannon Circle on Bodmin Moor.

Other significant alignments include one from Pendeen Watch to Lizard Point; one from Chapel Carn Brea to Kaer Round in Kerrier; and another from Maen Castle to Carn Brea – the last two tangent the edge of Lesingey. Lesingey’s connections with faraway sites suggests it serves a special role in Penwith’s overall geomantic system.

As an alignment centre with an ancient origin, one wonders whether it was an ordinary village or something rather different. I get the feeling that councils sat here, or someone special or influential lived here, and this gives rise to a number of questions. Who was Iunci, after whose court the place is apparently named, and what was he remembered for? Perhaps he was the founder of the village, or of a line of specialists who lived and worked here, and perhaps it was some kind of centre of activity. Was this where the doctors lived? Did people bring issues here for adjudication and counsel? Did they come to have knives sharpened or talismans blessed? Was it a place for midwifery or divination?

Having lived in energy-charged places like Glastonbury and Bethlehem, I know that, while such places are not easy and comfortable, they can be stimulating. Lesingey, a strong alignments centre, was no ordinary settlement, and it’s unlikely that ordinary people lived here for ordinary reasons.
Kilgooth Ust, St Just's goose-back

Kilgooth Ust or Cape Cornwall was once regarded as the Land's End, until a Victorian surveyor came along to show that today's Land's End was a little bit further west. However, the prominence and grandeur of Cape Cornwall still acts as the Land's End, energetically. It is a type three cliff sanctuary - that is, a prominent promontory with many alignments passing through it.



It's worth looking at a near right-angled triangle of alignments from Cape Cornwall, passing over Carn Galva to St Ives Head, and from St Ives Head, passing over Trencrom Hill to St Michael's Mount, and from the Mount to Cape Cornwall. This is one of the key structural 'frames' of the system of major alignments in Penwith.

  • 95. Bonfire Carn, Bryher - Knackboy Cairn, Tresco - Plains House cairn St Martin's - Cape Cornwall - Carn Bean - Chûn Castle - Nine Maidens stone circle - Bishop's Head and Foot stone.
  • 197. Cape Cornwall - White Island chambered cairn - St  Helen's A chambered cairn - Castle Down Z cairn - Castle Down BB, F, D and HH - Shipman Head cliff sanctuary.
  • 96. Castle Down 4D cairn, Tresco - Old Man cairn - Great Hill B  chambered cairn, Tean - Pernagie cairn, St Martin's - Cape Cornwall - Portheras Common barrow - Mulfra Quoit - Trye Round - Lady Downs barrowfield  (cairns A, C, D, G). Connecting two cairnfields.
  • 94. Obadiah's Barrow, Gugh - Kittern Hill N, Gugh - Salakee Down, St Mary's - Pig Rock, St Mary's -  Porth Hellick Down  J, St Mary's - The Brisons (northern rock) - Cape Cornwall - Carn Galva cairn - Beacon Barrows F - Foage 2 barrow - Rosewall  Hill - Godrevy Head summit cairn. Aligned to (true)  Beltane/Lammas sunrise point.
  • 163KE. Cape Cornwall - Botrea Barrow A -  Lesingey Round - St Mary's church, Pen Sans - Pengersick  Castle.
  • 77. Cape Cornwall - Botrea B Barrow - Caergwidden Round - St Michael's Mount.
  • 199. Cape Cornwall - Caer Brân hill enclosure - Blind Fiddler menhir - Sheffield barrow - Kerris Round - Predannack Head cliff sanctuary, Lizard.
  • 47. Cape Cornwall - Tom Thumb Rock - Kelynack  menhir - Boscawen-ûn field menhir. Aligned to lunar minimum south rising point.
  • 79. Cape Cornwall - Joppa B barrow - Numphra barrow - Boscawen-ûn - Kemyel Point  cliff sanctuary. Aligned to winter solstice rising point.
  • 69. Cape Cornwall - Ballowall barrow - Brea Downs tumulus - Chapel Carn Brea - St Buryan  church.

Cape Cornwall was probably controlled by the tribe that controlled the Tregeseal complex and Carn Kenidjack. One the centres for this tribe might have been St Just, with its own three sites - the Plein an Gwarry, the square and the church. Cape Cornwall is one of the big sites in Penwith for looking west over the ocean.

Map of Lanyon Quoit's positioningBuilt around 3700 BCE, unlike the other quoits, this is connected into the backbone alignment system, and its very location is defined by three intersecting backbone alignments.

It fell down in Victorian times and was incorrectly restored, with some vertical orthostats missing and the capstone lower than it was originally. Despite this, it is still very energetic. It was part of a small complex involving rocks and pools, a Neolithic long cairn and another cairn.

It is quite a hub site and a key node in the Penwith system. These are the alignments passing through it:
  • 103. Pendeen Watch - Lanyon Quoit - St Michael's Mount.
  • 215. Carn Galva - Lanyon Quoit - Drift holed stone - Tregurnow stone circle.#
  • 37. Treryn Dinas - Treryn Dinas  menhir - Boscawen-ûn - Newham Farm menhir - Sancreed Beacon - Lanyon Quoit -  Bosiliack Barrow - Nine Maidens NW menhir.
  • 182. Carn Naun cliff sanctuary - Beacon Barrows B - Tredinnick cairn - Lanyon Quoit - Bosvenning B barrow.
  • EC37. Pentire Point (East Cornwall) - Trevose Head - Winecove Point cliff  sanctuary - Trewey Downs cairn - Mulfra cairnfield - Lanyon Quoit - Botrea Barrows - Mayon Cliff 3 cairn - Carn Men Ellis cairn.
  • 9. Tregeseal stone circle - Lanyon Quoit - Carfury Menhir.
  • 80. The Brisons offshore rocks - Tregeseal complex - Truthwall Common C  cairn - Boslow cairn - Lanyon Quoit - Trenowin cairn (Castle an Dinas) - Trencrom Hill - Lelant 1  cairn - Coldharbour  Cairn - Rosewarne Manor iron age enclosure - Carn Brea neolithic tor.
  • 241. Cape Kenidjack - Carn Kenidjack - Lanyon Quoit.
  • 111Q. Lanyon Quoit - Chûn Castle (south edge) - Chûn Quoit. A Neolithic quoit alignment.

Lanyon Quoit was clearly associated with Carn Galva, both of them Neolithic sites. In those days much of the area was wooded, and Lanyon Quoit will have been a big clearing and ceremonial area, presumably with a sightline cut through to make Carn Galva visible.
Ynnyal, 'desolate one', SW 432 386

Gurnard's Head, a cliff sanctuary on the north coast, is connected with many other cliff sanctuaries and interesting sites. It is the entry and departure point of the Apollo Line, identified by Hamish Miller and Paul Broadhurst, on its way to and from Ireland.

This network node is a terminus for many alignments in Penwith. Alignments across the sea to Wales and Ireland, which can be imagined to pass through Gurnard's Head, have not been researched.

  • 198. Gurnards Head - Pendeen Watch - Porth  Hellick Down, St Mary's - Salakee Down - Peninnis Head A cairn,  St Mary's.
  • 144. Gurnard's Head - Rosemergy stone circle - Chûn Quoit. Rosemergy is a stone circle or stone setting that has been removed.
  • 109. Gurnard's Head - Rosemergy stone circle - Maen Castle cliff sanctuary.
  • 155. Gurnard's Head - Watch Croft cairn - Botrea B barrow - Bartinney A barrow - Tol Pedn Penwith.
  • 93. Gurnards Head - Carn Galva (saddle) - West  Lanyon Quoit - Sancreed Beacon - Boscawen-ûn  stone circle - St Buryan church - Cribba Head  (headland).
  • 114. Gurnards Head - Bosporthennis Quoit - Carfury menhir - Chyenhal E menhir - Castallack menhir (part of the Kemyel-Swingate menhirs).
  • 118. Gurnards Head - Treen Common Circle (SW edge) - Beacon  Barrows A & B - Mulfra Quoit - Further Longstone menhir.
  • 117P. Gurnards Head - Kerrowe menhir - Lady Downs B tumulus -  Trenowin cairn - Castle an Dinas (NE edge) - Pengersick Castle - Porthleven Head - Carrick  Luz/Lankidden cliff sanctuary (Lizard). One of the Lizard-Penwith near-parallel alignments.
  • 152. Gurnard's Head - Trencrom Hill - Mên Amber  rock outcrop - Kaer Round - (Beehive Hut cairn) - Nanjarrow menhir -  Rosemullion Head cliff sanctuary.

This cliff sanctuary was a retreat place, occupied probably during summer months and a challenging, austere, exposed place in winter - it has the now invisible remains of 16 small huts on it. It is the only cliff sanctuary in Penwith that is greenstone, not granite - thus is has a very different feeling to the others. Yet it is associated by alignment with both the Lizard and the Isles of Scilly.
Elder House on the Downs, a 300m walk from a layby on the A30 (SW 4122 2736)

Boscawen-ûn stone circle, or Dons Meyn, Dance of the Stones, is perhaps the greatest alignment centre in Penwith except for St Michael’s Mount – though that’s no big surprise. It has five backbone alignments passing through it. One, (55) comes close, hitting a nearby proxy cairn and the nearby Money Rock, going from Carn Lês Boel to Boscawen-ûn, then to Lesingey Round, Trevarnon Round (near Godrevy Head) and eventually Stannon stone circle on Bodmin Moor.

Two backbones go to Scilly:
  • 78. St Michael’s Mount - Boscawen-ûn - Maen Castle cliff sanctuary - Samson Hill, Bryher;
  • 97. Godolphin Hill - Faugan Round - Boscawen-ûn - Mayon Cliff, Sennen - Shipman Head cliff sanctuary, Bryher.
So Bryher, Boscawen-ûn and the two hills are clearly connected, and Boscawen-ûn is placed between the anchoring base sites at each end of these alignments.

What’s interesting is the way the stone circle sits at the hub of a number of key alignments within Penwith:
  • 220 Tol Pedn Penwith - Boscawen-ûn - St Ives Head, the two cliff sanctuaries at the extremities of the peninsula;
  • 79 Cape Cornwall - Boscawen-ûn - Kemyel Point, a summer solstice sunset alignment;
  • 55 Carn Lês Boel - Boscawen-ûn - Lesingey Round - Stannon Circle on Bodmin Moor, a summer solstice sunrise alignment;
  • 93 Gurnard’s Head - Carn Galva - West Lanyon Quoit - Boscawen-ûn - St Buryan church (a former round) - Cribba Head;
  • 37 Treryn Dinas - Boscawen-ûn - Lanyon Quoit - proxy menhir at the Nine Maidens.
So the stone circle sits at a hub that unites and integrates many Penwithian cliff sanctuaries and Neolithic sites.

There are six more local alignments and four radials operating within the Boscawen-ûn complex, which is made up mainly of menhirs. These and other alignments interlock remarkably with several further factors, terrestrial, astronomical and more, to determine its position – it sits on top of a blind spring too.

Boscawen-ûn has several reasons for being where it is – astronomical, topographical, energetic and mathematical. It is an example of the subtle and remarkable interlocking of many seemingly disparate factors to determine ancient site positioning and design. The circumference of this oval-shaped stone circle is exactly three times its short-axis radius, so there is meaning even in its shape.

This stone circle is aligned with cliff sanctuaries and other major sites. How they worked this all out is remarkable and a mystery. A lot of thought went into locating Boscawen-ûn: it is a master-stroke in geomantic positioning. Many of these alignments are not man-made, since they pass between natural cliff sanctuary sites.

Boscawen-ûn is an example of a megalithic bulls-eye: a stone circle placed in a sensitive spot that isn’t immediately apparent in the landscape, where it would light up the whole system. Its placing is brilliant, showing signs of being put there by utilising multiple megalithic scientific principles.

At other sites, panoramas, underground water, astronomicals or intervisibility are predominant siting factors, and this is true at Boscawen-ûn. But there is something much more here: a geomantic master-stroke to energise the Penwith megalithic system as a whole. Boscawen-ûn is placed so that it aligns with six cliff sanctuaries – this is remarkable and a feat both of natural order and human ingenuity.
Concluding...

The network nodes outlined above, plus others, are also some of the chief ceremonial sites of Penwith. They have a lot of variety, making all sorts of possibilities available, in terms of shamanic energy-working and consciousness possibilities. The alignments system demonstrates how a system was built to cover the whole peninsula.
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