The Trippet Stones is the name given to a stone circle set in a somewhat isolated and windswept part of Bodmin Moor, on Manor Common, Blisland, Cornwall. The circle is a Scheduled Monument (number 1928 in the Cornwall County Council Historic Environment Record) and is located at SX13127501.

Every now and again you witness something that totally astonishes you, and when that something is an action that goes totally against everything you hold dear, then it can often leave you both speechless and seething with anger inside.

We have all spoken out many times against the wanton damage, defacing and destruction that is all to often associated with stone circles, whether it be the more nationally known iconic ones such as Avebury and Stonehenge or those of lesser stature spread throughout the land. One of those lesser ones, although certainly iconic in Cornwall where it resides, are the Trippet Stones… a Scheduled Monument (see specifically section 28 in the link).

On the 5th of July 2013 this was the astonishing scene filmed at 2pm when, as the video shows, cattle were purposely driven across Manor Common causing them, on the whole, to enter and pass through the circle thus creating a situation where a Scheduled Monument was seriously put in danger.

Unbelievably, just one week earlier, Natural England seriously warned the Commoners about farming vehicles being driven through and too close to the circle. Although a vehicle didn’t enter the circle on this occasion but did get very close to it, this is surely the most extreme example yet as to why monuments such as the Trippet Stones need physical protection as a matter of great urgency as words appear to mean nothing. Today the Trippet Stones… next week?