Piper's Stones

National Monument in state guardianship No. 416. Disturbed remains of a circle of granite blocks (int. diam. 23m) at the high N end of a small steep-sided ridge. There are sixteen stones in the area of the site of which only five are in situ; of the others, five are prostrate but probably close to their original position, three are clearly displaced while the remaining two are too small to have been original components. The stones in situ vary in height from 1.3m to 1.92m but (contra Burl 1976, 234) the pair at the NE are not the highest stones in the circle although their position, facing the outlier ('The Piper') 40m further to the NE, suggests that they may mark the entrance. The OS Letters (O'Flanagan 1928, 114) describe twenty-nine stones including displaced examples and record a then recent attempt to plant the site with trees. A trench dug around the inner edge of the circle was noted and also the presence of a bank between the stones which may be the origin of the low bank now visible between the stones at the SE. The outlier (WI015-010001-) occurs downslope to the E and is a large cup-marked glacial erratic (H 1.95m; diam. c. 2.9m). While it is a natural feature there is no reason to believe that it did not form an integral part of the site. Crossing the top of the stone at right-angles are two well-defined grooves and a similar curved groove occurs on what was the top of a prostrate stone in the SE part of the circle. It is clear that these are not entirely natural. (Burl 1976, 234; Walshe 1931, 128-30)