We reached our first destination, a cattle grid denoting the beginning of some bleak moorland . . . disembarking from the car, the wind fairly whipped around, and the chill factor was obvious. I was just very pleased to be wearing my new bush hat, which went a long way to keeping me toasty warm. After mooching along the farm track for a bit, we could see the first of our objectives, a pair of leaning stones.
By now, we were well into open country, the moor and the sheep sweeping away from us. This not only gave the stones an air of bleak romantic solitude, it also gave Rupert a miserable time in the relentless freezing wind. After enthusiastically taking some photos of the stones with the pattern of linking pebbles someone had placed at their bases, I suddenly remembered I had a useful stripy blanket in my rucksack. "How do you fancy an Iron Age cloak?" I asked Rupe, folding it appropriately and throwing it round his shoulders. He still looked chilled to the marrow, and my hat was getting in the way, so I dropped it on his head with a flourish.
Strangely, he didn't look so much Iron Age, but more like 'A Fistful of Dollars' meets 'Raphael's Angels'.
Visited 24th May 2003: After visiting Pentre Ifan with Jane and her posse, we went our separate ways, Jane to the seaside and us lot to the stones around Tafarn y Bwlch. The walk to this stone pair is very civilized, and compared to many other sites in the area, access is very good. The track leads right past them, and on towards Waun Mawn.
The unusual thing about the Tafarn y Bwlch stones is they both lean, and were probably erected that way. The angles of the stones remain remarkably similar, even after 3000 plus of livestock rubbing against them (and 3 year olds sitting on them). Why were they created this way? They reminded me of the stones at Bedd Arthur and Meini Gwyr, both local where the lean on the stones might be original.
According to the map at Tafarn y Bwylch a number of standing stones can be found.
Parking by the cattle grid, we trudged up the bleak looking path, and first came across a pair on the left hand side of the track leaning violently over as if bracing themselves against the wind. The light was low and the mizzle and murk prevented me from sketching but treaclechops liked the moodiness of it and, naturally, got out her camera. The stones stood stoicly together about 4 feet high, and the place felt very bleak.
We pressed on towards an altogether grander affair, the Waun Mawn stone part of the same complex only about 100 bone chilling metres up the hillside on the right hand side of the track…We noticed on our map that there were a number of other standing stones, again part of this Tafarn y Bwylch group, just about 200ms away to the east, but by this time we were so cold, that we couldn’t be arsed.
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