Images (2)
Fieldnotes (2)
Miscellaneous (2)
Links (1)

Images

Image of Eithbed (Dolmen / Quoit / Cromlech) by Merrick

Extraordinary stone, and a likely capstone. Long and broad but comparitively thin, similarly proportioned to the Pentre Ifan capstone. The black thing is a camera case put on to give a sense of scale.

Image credit: Merrick

Merrick Sep 10, 2004

Looking south. The arrow points to the Cornel Bach standing stones (possible ex-cromlech)

Image credit: Merrick

Merrick Sep 10, 2004

Articles

Eithbed

Dolmen / Quoit / Cromlech

CARL Oct 15, 2010

‘Visited’ 10.10.10
After reading the previous notes about this site I thought I would try a different tact. I drove up the minor road which runs to the north of the site and parked where the O/S map shows a public footpath is – there isn’t one by the way! Using binoculars I was able to scan the fields and hedgerows below me and sure enough there were several piles of stones which could be seen amid the hedgerows. Some of these stones appeared quite large with one or two which looked like they could have been capstones etc. It would have been a bit tricky walking to the stones and I couldn’t see much benefit in trying.
I didn’t hang around too long as it didn’t seem worth it?

Eithbed

Dolmen / Quoit / Cromlech

Merrick Sep 7, 2004

Marked on the OS map as Burial Chamber – just as the pristine Gwal-y-Filiast is – there’s not only no cromlech there, but we also failed to find any clue as to the whereabouts of the public footpath promised by OS.

Eithbed was either two or three cromlechs; nobody’s really sure which, and there are examples of double-dolmens in the region such as St Elvis Farm, and triple ones such as Carn Wen.

According to Children & Nash (1997), in 1871 Gardner-Wilkinson reports two out of three cromlechs as ‘fallen’, and in 1911 Done-Bushell recognised three capstones.

The northern Cornel Bach stone – another probable cromlech – is clearly visible downhill.

Many of the fields have large stones lying around their boundaries, however the biggest cluster is, surprise surprise, where the burial chambers should be.

An astonishing stone identified by Children & Nash as a capstone – 10ft x 5ft x 1ft and shaped like the Pentre Ifan capstone – is here looking very recently moved, and a few metres away to the east is one likely site, a jumble of stones about 6ft long, covered in weeds and the remains of farm product plastic.

Another stands in long grass a few metres further along in the next field.

Utterly destroyed, disrespected and fucked over. Fucking farmers.

visited 18 Aug 04

Eithbed

Dolmen / Quoit / Cromlech

CoralJackz Jul 9, 2025

The following is from 1911 and describes the destruction: “Stone Circle, Maenclochog. – Your Committee have to report with regret that a very perfect circle has been entirely destroyed near this village at Eithbed West. The place, formely part of the Picton Estate, changed hands last year, and the owner, Mr. Davies, wishing to clear his land of stones, and in entire ignorance of the existence of prehistoric remains there, carted the whole thing away. He also completed the destruction of the neighbouring Cromlechs, part of which had been taken in 1907 to build a wall at Maenclochog. The circle and Cromlechs are fully described in the Archaeological Survey.”

Eithbed

Dolmen / Quoit / Cromlech

Merrick Sep 7, 2004

Barber & Williams (1989) say it’s been covered in Archaeologia Cambrensis (1910 p.486 & 1911 p.300), and in the volumes of the Royal Commission of Ancient Monuments no.635 of Pembroke.