Dinas Dinorwig

DINAS DINORWIG ROCKING-STONE.
To the Editor of the Arch. Camb.

SIR,-- In the summer of 1863 I happened to be in the neighbourhood of Dinas Dinorwig, and, falling into conversation with one of the inhabitants, I was informed of a rocking-stone which stood a few score yards to the south-west of the camp. This stone I afterwards visited and found it to be a large boulder balanced upon a level rock, differing in no respect from the numerous blocks with which Carnarvonshire is studded, except in its massiveness and rocking quality. After several unsuccessful trials, with the assistance of a friend I succeeded in slightly moving the stone; but I was told that the children about could easily set it in motion. The truth of this information I could not test. Being lately in the same neighbourhood, I went out of my way to see the stone; but it had disappeared. Upon inquiry I ascertained that it had been blasted, and used in building cottages which stand within a stone's throw of the site of the logan. It is a pity that this stone has been destroyed; for, whether mechanically poised, or left in its position by a melting glacier, it was not void of interest.

Dr. A. Wynn Williams, in his pamphlet on Arthur's Well, thus alludes to the rocking-stone: "At the foot of the Dinas, on the western side, in a field called 'Cae Go'uchaf' (or the highest blacksmith's field), on Glasgoed Farm, near the Groeslon, or crossing, close to the road, are some old ruins, probably Druidical. Amongst them is a very large rocking-stone. The circumference of the stone measures in length 24 feet; in width, 16 feet. It might weigh from ten to fifteen tons. A child of seven or eight years of age can move it with ease. I am not aware that this remarkable stone has ever been noticed in any antiquarian work; which is rather curious, as these things are not common in this neighbourhood or country."
Yours respectfully, E.O.