Three circles on the moor
The Hurlers are a group of three stone circles on the eastern side of Bodmin Moor, close to the village of Minions. They stand in a roughly north-east to south-west line, and the two outer circles are smaller than the central one. Together they form one of the most complete groups of this kind in Cornwall, and they are generally dated to the Bronze Age, though pinning down a precise date is difficult.
The central circle is the largest and best preserved. Its stones are relatively evenly spaced and it is usually described as the most regular of the three. The northern circle is smaller and has fewer upright stones. The southwestern circle is the most damaged, with only a few stones surviving upright. The stones themselves are local granite, and many are fairly short, rarely rising far above the knee or waist, which surprises visitors expecting tall pillars.
Alongside the circles stand two other stones known as the Pipers, which lie a short distance to the west. A cluster of other prehistoric features lies nearby, including cairns and old field boundaries, so the circles are part of a wider landscape and not an isolated monument.
What survives and what was lost
Like many monuments, the Hurlers have not remained untouched. Over the centuries stones fell, were broken up, or were taken for other uses, and mining and quarrying activity in the area also left its mark. In the twentieth century some stones were reset and the circles tidied, so the line of stones visible today is partly a modern reconstruction of what was once there. Where a stone has been replaced, it is not always certain that it stood in exactly that spot.
More recent archaeological work in the central circle is reported to have found traces of a paved interior, made of small stones including quartz. Reports like this are worth treating cautiously until you can consult the published site records, but they suggest the circle was more elaborate than the bare ring of stones appears today.
The folk tale behind the name
The name comes from a tale found in many parts of Britain: that people who broke the Sabbath were turned to stone as punishment. According to the Cornish version, men playing the game of hurling on a Sunday were petrified, and the two Pipers who provided music were turned to stone as well. Hurling here refers to a traditional Cornish ball game, not the Irish sport of the same name.
This is clearly a later story, probably from long after the monument fell out of use. It helps explain why local people later preserved or shunned the stones, but it tells us nothing reliable about the people who built them. Similar tales are attached to other circles in Cornwall, which suggests a recurring way of explaining unusual stone groupings. Cornish legends of this sort often link the landscape to moral warnings, as do stories about Cornish giants.
Why were they built?
Nobody knows for certain. Archaeologists usually offer several possibilities, and these are not mutually exclusive.
- Ceremony and gathering. Circles may have been places where communities met for seasonal or social occasions.
- Burial or memory. Many circles lie near cairns and barrows, which may mean they marked a landscape tied to the dead and to ancestors.
- Astronomy. Some researchers have proposed alignments with the sun or moon, but for the Hurlers such claims are tentative and disputed.
- Territory. Monuments may have signalled shared claims to grazing land or recognized meeting places.
The fact that three circles stand in a line, in a form not common elsewhere in Cornwall, has led to speculation that each had a different role or that they were built at different times. Excavation has been limited, and organic material that could provide firm dates rarely survives in the acid moorland soil, so these ideas remain open.
The setting
The Hurlers sit on a moor shaped by granite, with distinctive rock outcrops and weathered boulders nearby. A famous balanced rock formation, the Cheesewring, lies a short distance away, and a gold cup found in a Bronze Age burial mound at Rillaton in the nineteenth century is often linked with the area. The cup is reported to be in a national museum collection rather than on the moor. Details of the find are better checked in museum records than here.
This ground has also been worked for later purposes. Old quarries and mining remains scar the nearby hills, and some of the buildings in Minions belong to that later industrial story. Seeing the circles beside those later workings is a reminder of how many layers of human use a single hillside can hold. The wider upland of Bodmin Moor is dotted with such outcrops, and the granite tors there explain why weathered rock formations appear so often.
Visiting with care
The site is generally open to walkers, but check current access information and conditions before you go. Weather on the moor can turn quickly, with low cloud and wind, and the ground may be boggy. Please walk around rather than across the stones, avoid climbing or leaning on them, and take litter home. Mining relics in the area can include hidden shafts and unstable ground, so keep to clear paths and follow local guidance.
Ponies and cattle often graze the surrounding moorland, and visitors should keep a respectful distance and not feed them. Treating the circles as an ancient monument and an important place in the landscape, not just a photo stop, is the simplest way to help them survive for future visitors.