Before arriving here I was at Rhiwiau and Blaen y Cwm, two very large barrows separated by a small stream, naturally if you follow the stream it will get larger and lead to the sea, and it will lead you here to Plas Newydd round barrow.
From way up on the B5382 it looked very interesting, fencing is usually bestowed on the more famous and distinguished of prehistoric works, and after Chances excellent posts I decided that I just had to come back and take a closer look, someday.
Two and a half years it took, Ive got a big list to get through, but it's better late than never.
I parked off the B road in an access lane into some woods, they are for sale too, so I wouldn't have got in the way. I had already passed the entrance to the farm some way back, and running low on time (sitting under a tree waiting for the rain to stop) I decided a sneak viewing was the way to go. There was no one around, and keeping trees between myself and the farm, I got there and back without any hinderance.
Despite all the knowledge garnered from excavations and finds from the dig and some good stone chambers with in the mound, it is very sad to see the way this barrow has been treated. The fence is far too close, concrete posts form the corners, sunk into the barrow itself. Sad tutting. The black silage bags do nothing for the aesthetics of the place either. A stile has been thoughtfully provided to gain access to the grassy mound. No stone work can be seen, and nor is it round any more , but distinctly squarish.
The barrow stands about a hundred yards from the Afon Aled just above the flood plain, as many barrows round here do, denoting tribal boundaries or adoring water itself, who knows, not me.
Another and even more interesting example of this class has recently been brought to light by the Hon. W. O. Stanley, at Plas Newydd, not far from the great dolmen represented on woodcut No. 50.
It is a chamber or cist, 3 feet 3 inches wide by about 7 feot long, and covered by two slabs. Before being disturbed, the supporting slabs must have formed nearly perfect walls, thus distinguishing the cist from those standing on widely-spaced legs. Its principal point of interest, however, is the widely-splayed avenue of stones leading up to it, showing that it was always intended to be visited ; and still more curious are the two holes that were pierced in the slab that closed the entrance. The upper part of this slab is now broken off, but so much remains that it is easy to see that they were originally circular and about 10 inches in diameter. Such holed stones are very frequent in Eastern dolmens, and are also common in Cornwall and elsewhere ; but what their purpose may have been has not yet been explained.
Rude stone monuments in all countries their age and their uses by James Fergussion - London 1872 Page 166 to 168
As we didnt take a trip down to the barrow fieldnotes would be a bit of a fib, so a short misc note.
The barrow is at the bottom of a river valley (the Afon Aled) unlike the other barrows we'd seen this morning which were on hill tops and crests.
Coflein says that in 1892 human bones were found in a cist or chamber, maybe bronze artifacts too.
From the road I couldnt tell whether there was any stones protruding from the barrow which still looked about two metres tall and enclosed behind a wire fence, a closer look seems warrented.
Log in |
Register
0 discussions
Show map (inline Google Map)
Add an image 
Maps / Plans / Diagrams:
Artistic / Interpretive:
Posted by postman
Posted by Chance
Top of page