Country diary: A midwinter visit to a remote stone circle

‘One theory is that the number of stones referred to the metonic cycle, a lunisolar calendar in which the moon’s phases recur at the same time every 19 years.’ Photograph: Alexandra Pearce-Broomhead

The sun is already low in the sky when I arrive. The heath looks bleak in its winter shroud, but the hawthorns are decorated with lichen tinsel and crimson-berry baubles.

Penwith is the land of bracken and bramble. Mostly agricultural and heathland, it is raw, wind-beaten and ancient. In a remote spot is Boscawen-Un. Erected between 2500BC and 1500BC, it comprises 19 standing stones, including one that’s white with quartz, which form a circle around one central leaning stone with two axe heads engraved into its base (something that only becomes wholly visible during the midsummer sunrise). Near the entrance lie a few horizontal slabs, potentially part of a burial chamber.