Holed Stone near Merry Maidens 

                Click on small photos below for larger.

The holed stone.			Upper section.			Closeup of hole.

Just over the road to the north of the Merry Maidens circle is a holed stone that has been pressed into service as a gatepost.
William Borlase (1) writing in 1769 describes this stone, "About 65 paces exactly North of Rodmodreuy Circle in Burien, Cornwall, is a flat stone, six inches thick at the medium, two foot six wide, and five foot high: 15 inches below the top, it has a hole six inches in diameter quite through." He included the illustration below and went on to mention another two close by, "In the adjoining hedge I perceived another, holed in the same manner: and in one wall of the village, near by, a third of like make."

Borlase's grandson, William Copeland Borlase (2) published a map showing the three holed stones in 1872, a section of this map is shown below.

The holed stone photographed by us and illustrated by William Borlase is shown bottom left, we could not find the other two stones to the right and they are not mentioned in any modern coverage. The barrows at C and E still exist, but D, in which W.C Borlase tells us "a workman named Eddy, not many years since, came upon an Urn, which he immediately broke in pieces", has been completely destroyed.
The purpose of holed stones is difficult to guess at today, but William Borlase was certain that they were associated with stone circles, being "the detached Stones, to which the Ancients were wont to tye their Victims, whilst the Priests were going through their preparatory Ceremonies, and making Supplications to the Gods to accept the ensuing Sacrifice."

(1) Borlase W. Antiquities Historical and Monumental of the County of Cornwall, Bowyer and Nichols, London 1769
(2) Borlase W.C., Naenia Cornubiae,  Longmans, 1872