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Tremaenhir

Standing Stones

Fieldnotes

Marked as the singular 'Maen Hir' on the OS maps of 1912 and 1919, on more recent editions they're marked as 'Standing Stones' either side of a house called Tremaenhir ('place of the standing stones').

The first one is easily found, right beside the road and just over 6ft tall. Batman-ear shaped bluestone, like many stones in the area it's got 3 faces. It has '1850' carved about 3ft up on one side, an act superseded 10 years and 3ft later by a tosser called CG carving their initials and year of vandalism inside a square border.

The other stone isn't obvious. It clearly must stand on private farmland behind the house. We had a poke about and found a likely candidate, a 3-faceted pointed bluestone (like many of the menhirs in the area), heavily weathered and lichened and in the right place according to the Landranger map.

Archaeologia Cambrensis (1974) says there are two stones over 6ft high, but our candidate was only about 4ft. It's been incorporated into a wall and has been drilled to hang a gatepost hinge.

The fact of the farmhouse blocking the unquestionable landscape interrelation doesn't help with the sense of place.

visited 24 Aug 04
Posted by Merrick
7th September 2004ce
Edited 8th September 2004ce

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