Everyone who's been here and left notes have mentioned that it's not entirely visible, but why didn't it piss them off, there's not even a hint of annoyance with the farmers of localness.
I parked as humbly as possible by the farm/footpath entrance, left daughter in the car and walked away. Ive seen the photos from the wrong side of the hedge, Ive also seen Bladups pictures from the right side of the hedge on the Portal. I was adamant that I too would be on the right side of the hedge so I tried to go left of the fence, only to pass a burly farm hand who obligingly put me on the right path, what a bastard.
Anyway there'll be another place to get over i'm sure, you cant keep a good man down, or on the wrong side of the fence. Two fields later and i'm stood next to the stone, and totally non plussed as to why a footpath would run right past a big famous standing stone and then have no provision for viewing the stone. It made me dead angry.
I walked past the stone north-ish towards the house to see if I could get into the next field, no go that way, the only way to get on the other side is back at the beginning. But even if you could get the west side of the hedge you'd be so far away from the stone that another hedge would be in the way. Looking at thesweetcheats pictures the hedge was considerably lower then, I might have been more able to get across, by standing on the gate and jumping for it, but not now with the high summer growth. The farmers have done this to us on purpose i'm positive, all it would take is a bit of shearing and a couple of planks to get over the double fence filled with an intense hedge. It's what I would do. But who am I? no one, that's who.
When I visited I parked near the farm and took the path past the farmhouse and barns, through the gate into the fields leading to the stone. It was a lovely sunny day and no one was about. This was one of Dafydd's first sites and he loved looking at the animals. The stone is large and is quite easily seen despite being in the hedgerow.
Sampson's Jack is a pointy menhir of white stone which soars out of its hedgerow setting! It is the texture and colour of rice pudding. What a shame you can't see the whole stone – it must be 12 feet tall, but the bottom six feet are hidden in the hawthorn. Without modern buildings it is only maybe 300 metres away from the standing stone at Ty'r Coed farm and certainly on a sight line.
Note for pedants: On the map, the spelling of Sampson has a 'p' in it.
This post appears as part of the weblog entry Gower power
Majestic against the setting sun over the Gower hills, we got to this stone having missed it when we previously visited Arthurs Stone (Maen Cetty). Samson's Jack is on farm land just over a hedge/gate which we chose not to cross as we were being 'buzzed' by a local farmer in his van, he was probably friendly but we didn't get a chance to say hello.
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