About the Maps of Ancient West Cornwall
Maps of Prehistoric Cornwall
Maps of the ancient sites and alignments in Cornwall - embracing the differing landscapes of the country. They can all be found on the See the Maps page.
There are two maps for each area: one shows ancient sites and the other shows alignments of sites. For more information about alignments, see here.
What do the ancient sites maps show?
The ancient sites maps show all the known ancient sites in Cornwall.
These were found by trawling meticulously through the official Pastscape, Historic England, Heritage Gateway and Cornwall Council resource websites, the Megalithic Portal and Modern Antiquarian sites, Meyn Mamvro, CASPN, the Cornish Ancient and Holy Wells map, and personal communications, books and other sources.
All locations on the maps are exactly positioned and checked on satellite photos. All marked sites have reference links in their info-popups leading to online sources of further information - just click on the symbol for the site and the information will appear.
The map shows ancient sites from the Neolithic, Bronze and Iron Ages, with some Early Medieval sites, some of which were built on top of more ancient sites.
Unlike the highly detailed Cornwall Council map, these maps are visually useful, avoiding cluttering the maps with details such as archaeological findspots, many Iron Age rounds, uncertain sites and various other features.
What do the alignments maps show?
The alignments maps show alignments that have been found running between the megalithic sites of Cornwall.
These demonstrate that ancient sites were deliberately located, constituting an integrated system, at least in West Penwith, the Isles of Scilly and Bodmin Moor.
Map alignments were first brought to public attention by Alfred Watkins in the 1920s-30s and the idea was further developed by John Michell in the 1960s-70s. They are not energy-lines or energy-leys: they are simply sites that are aligned with each other (read more here).
All alignments shown on this map are accurate to within three metres, with a few exceptions at five metres. To qualify as an alignment, they must have a minimum of four sites on them - mostly more - though three-site exceptions are accepted in some cases when they are obvious (discussed on another page).
Initially, alignments were drawn from a list compiled by Ray Cox of Meyn Mamvro, using research done over several decades by John Michell and a variety of contributors. Many new alignments, including backbone alignments, were discovered while making of the maps and added to the list.
All alignments have all been carefully checked by the mapmaker, Palden Jenkins, and by Cheryl Straffon and Ray Cox. The maps are updated as new information and ideas come in.
How the Maps Were Made
Google Maps was chosen over other online facilities because of their accuracy, editability, public availability and zero costs. It has certain mapping limitations, but then, so too do other online services unless substantial fees are paid.
Ray Cox's list of alignments was entered on the map and checked. In the process, 20% of alignments in the list were scrapped, since they were found to be insufficiently accurate. New alignments emerged during the making of the map and, once checked by Ray and Cheryl, they were entered on the map. These more than doubled Penwith's known alignments. These alignments are regularly reviewed.
A Few More Details
Quite a few sites are no longer present in the field - destroyed or moved by farmers, landowners or miners. Their locations have been identified by studying historical records, field evidence and other sources, and through archaeological and dowsing work by a variety of researchers.
Many now-destroyed sites were mentioned by an antiquarian of the late 1800s called William Borlase, a resident of Pendeen, and by other early antiquarians. Biographies of many local antiquarians can be found here.
Some ancient sites have been removed only in recent decades. Notable amongst these were the last remaining stones from the Tregurnow stone circle. Even today, battles continue over mobile phone masts, cattle damage and questionable land-management measures (led by the Save Penwith Moors campaign).
Establishing alignments through distinct points such as menhirs, stones, crosses and quoits is quite straightforward but it is meticulous work and not as easy as one would imagine. In the case of stone circles, enclosures, rounds and some barrows and cairns, alignments sometimes tangent their perimeter rather than cutting through the centre of the site.
Discoveries
One early discovery was that of a direct alignment of three hills - St Michael's Mount, Trencrom Hill and St Ives Head - which form West Penwith's eastern boundary. Many other discoveries evolved from there.
Some are backbone alignments - longer-distance alignments linking higher-magnitude sites, giving the alignment system an overall structure. Most other alignments are more local (red on the map). In the Isles of Scilly there are a number of parallel alignments, highlighted on the Scilly map.
These differing alignments are marked in different colours (see alignment magnitudes). This classification is neither final nor conclusive - it's a working basis for distinguishing different kinds of alignments and making sense of them.
The finding of new alignments was partly a logical process and partly intuitive. It's logical to look for alignments radiating from certain key sites such as St Michael's Mount, Boscawen-ûn or Lanyon Quoit. Intuitively, alignments also revealed themselves spontaneously, often 'by chance'.
There isn't a neatly rational system or pattern to these alignments, to our modern way of thinking, yet there is a coherence to it all, with hints of both an organically-arising and a thought-through, planned order.
Mên-an-Tol
Here are the maps
Cornwall:
Specific areas:
West Penwith:
Isles of Scilly:
To view any of these maps on your computer using Google Earth, go to the map that interests you, click the three dots at the top-right of the map legend, then click 'download KML', save the KMZ or KML file to your computer and open it in Google Earth.
Map courtesy of Google Maps
Chûn Quoit from Boswens menhir
Boscawen-ûn stone circle
Early Christian cross near Sancreed
Ballowall Barrow
The fogou at Carn Euny
The Merry Maidens stone circle
Chûn Quoit and Boscaswell church
Carn Lês Boel
The Mount from Carfury menhir
Quartz stone at Boscawen-ûn
St Euny's holy well, Carn Euny
Carn Euny Iron Age village
Men Scryfa inscribed menhir
Carn Kenidjack from Botrea Barrows
West Lanyon Quoit - what's left of it
Lesingey Round
This project is dedicated to
John Michell
Hamish Miller
Cheryl Straffon
Sig Lonegren
Craig Weatherhill
and Tom Graves
for their friendship and
their contributions to
geomancy and archaeology.
Carn Galva from Lanyon Quoit
Acknowledgements
Gratitude to the following people and organisations for the part they have played in the making of these maps:
- Alfred Watkins and John Michell for sparking the geomancy movement in UK, and especially to John for his work in Penwith around 1970-73 - see his book The Old Stones of the Land's End Peninsula;
- Cheryl Straffon, Raymond Cox and contributors to Meyn Mamvro for all their work, and to Cheryl and Ray for checking the maps, and for their information and considered opinions;
- the many researchers who have contributed data, insights and ideas to the study of West Penwith's ancient past;
- Heritage Gateway, Pastscape, the Megalithic Portal and The Modern Antiquarian, all of which have been important sources of precise locational data and information;
- Google Maps, DigitalGlobe, Getmapping plc, Infoterra Ltd, Bluesky, Landsat and Terrametrics for the digital mapping and satellite photography that forms the base of the maps;
- Lynne Speight for her patience, support and our field visits.
Two routes follow from here:
For more about the map and alignments:
or to examine the maps more closely:
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