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Ancient monument

The Merry Maidens

Lamorna, Cornwall

Nineteen girls who danced on a Sunday, and two pipers who fled.

The Merry Maidens is a near-perfect ring of 19 granite stones in the far west of Cornwall. Its Cornish name, Dans Maen, means stone dance.

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When
Late Neolithic
Where
50.0647, -5.5888
Group
Circles & monuments

Visiting

Free, in a field beside the B3315 between Penzance and Land's End.

Cover of The Ledger of Lost Britain by Cale Mills
Read the full story in the book

The Ledger of Lost Britain

The Romans arrived in AD 43. For most people that is where the history of Britain begins. But by the time the legions landed, people had already been living on these islands for thousands of years. They had hunted, farmed, mined flint, dragged stones across the country, raised a hill by hand, and buried their dead in great tombs. They left no written words. What they left was the ground itself. Every place in this book can be visited, or has been dug up, or is in a museum.

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