Meini Gwyr Stone Circle View all content for Meini Gwyr

Having done a minimum of research beforehand (always like to do a first visit to an area 'blind' with just an OS map, it encourages more wandering and pondering), I'd no idea what to expect. The OS map marks it with that little crown logo used for tumuli, but this site is the remains of a stone circle unlike any other I know of. The stones were of varying height, with an entrance avenue of four stones a side, side on and touching as a wall. The circle was surrounded by a bank 3ft high and 120ft in diameter, but with no ditch. There was a stone curb leading away from the entrance round the bank for about 30 foot each side. According to the 1938 excavations, the stones were all placed not vertically but leaning inwards. The field boundaries are full of massive bluestones, surely including some of the fifteen missing circle stones. This is a major complex built and used over a very long period – there are a dozen round barrows, another stone circle, several standing stones, a henge and a cromlech all originally within a few hundred metres. We're only a mile or two from the Gors Fawr megalithic landscape and just beyond that the source of the Stonehenge bluestones. The richness of the Glandy Cross megalithic landscape, the scale, effort and sustained time period of focus here, and the arresting unique design, make it an essential visit. It seems utterly ludicrous it wasn't included in the TMA book. Props to Dyfed Archaeological Trust Ltd for the fine info board at the entrance, detailing a lot of the monuments now destroyed and/or not listed on the OS map. visited 17 & 18 Aug 04

Posted by Merrick 7th September 2004ce

Comments (0)
You must be logged in to add a comment