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Penmaenmawr

<b>Penmaenmawr</b>Posted by blossomImage © W.G. Smith
Also known as:
  • Moelfre, Druids Circle and Environs
  • Penmaen Mawr

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Added by TMA Ed


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Sites in this group:

12 posts
Cefn Coch Cairn(s)
6 posts
Cerrig Gwynion Cairn(s)
26 posts
Circle 275 Stone Circle
11 posts
Circle 278 Ring Cairn
13 posts
Cors y Carneddau Cairn(s)
8 posts
Cors y Carneddau Stone Circle
8 posts
Graig Lwyd Ancient Mine / Quarry
13 posts
Maen Crwn Standing Stone / Menhir
3 posts
Moelfre Cairn(s)
30 posts
Monument 280 Standing Stones
18 posts
Red Farm Stone Circle
66 posts
Y Meini Hirion Stone Circle

News

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Prehistoric Ancestors - Ritual in the Carneddau Mountains

A guided walk around the area above Penmaenmawr. A National Archaeology Week event by Gwynedd Archaeological Trust.

Saturday, 14th July 2007, 11.00am.

http://www.heneb.co.uk/waunllanfair/waunllanfairwalk.html
Posted by Robert Carr
13th July 2007ce

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<b>Penmaenmawr</b>Posted by blossom

Folklore

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That's right, of all the many prehistoric remains up here, why not destroy the very one that has some decent folklore.
A short distance from [Meini Hirion] is a smooth round hill called Moelfre, upon which is a carnedd, covered with turf, about seventeen feet in diameter. I allude to it chiefly for the sake of introducing the following very curious unpublished notice of it which occurs in the [17th C] manuscript of Sir John Wynn..

.."and in the top very plain and pleasant upon this hill there is a circle marked, whereupon stood three stones about a yard and a quarter above ground, the one red as blood, the other white, and the third a little bluer than the white stone, standing in a triangle.

What should be the reason of placing such three stones in such a place upon so high and so pleasant a mount, and to place there stones of such colours, I cannot express otherwise that we have it by tradition.

The tradition is this, that God Almighty hath wrought in this place a miracle for increasing of our faith. And that was thus. Three women, about such time as Christianity began to creep in amongst us, upon a Sabbath day in the morning went to the top of this hill to winnow their corn, and having spread there winnowing sheet upon the ground and begun their work, some of their neighbours came unto them and did reprehend them for violating and breaking the Lordes commandment by working upon the Sabbath day.

These faithless women, regarding their profit more than the observing of God's commandments, made slight of their neighbours' admonition, and held on in their work; whereupon it pleased God instantly to transform them into three pillars of stones, and to frame these stones of the same colour as the women's clothes were, one red, the other white, and the third bluish, and to transform their winnowing sheet and corn into earth, and so to leave them there in example to others.

This is a tradition we have and believed by the old people in that neighbourhood, and however, whether it was so or no, the tradition is wholesome, and will deter others from working upon the Sabbath day.

These stones, being worth the seeing as they were placed, have been digged up by some idle headed youths within these six years, and were rolled down the hill, and do now lie together at the foot of the hill.
p162 of 'Notes of Family Excursions in North Wales', by J. O. Halliwell, 1860.

With old-fashioned, and possibly hammed-up spelling turned into 21st century English.
Rhiannon Posted by Rhiannon
26th July 2007ce
Edited 26th July 2007ce

Miscellaneous

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The Rev. W Bingley decided to hike up Penmaen Mawr - he scrambled up a steep ascent "from the sixth milestone" and "it was not before I had experienced several severe tumbles" on the loose stones, that he reached the summit.

On the summit, and extending in an oval form from north to south, are some evident remains of antiquity [..] This ruin is called Braich y Ddinas, The Arm of the City, and is supposed to have been an ancient British fortification.

He also spotted a shrub, "called by the Welsh Pren Lemwn, or lemon tree" which he was relieved, as a Logical Englishman, to find was actually Whitebeam.

From p312 of 'Excursions in North Wales' (1839) - on Google Books.
Rhiannon Posted by Rhiannon
8th October 2007ce

Latest posts for Penmaenmawr

Showing 1-10 of 214 posts. Most recent first | Next 10

Circle 275 (Stone Circle) — Images (click to view fullsize)

<b>Circle 275</b>Posted by Meic Meic Posted by Meic
22nd January 2012ce

Monument 280 (Standing Stones) — Images

<b>Monument 280</b>Posted by Meic Meic Posted by Meic
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Y Meini Hirion (Stone Circle) — Images

<b>Y Meini Hirion</b>Posted by Meic Meic Posted by Meic
22nd January 2012ce

Maen Crwn (Standing Stone / Menhir) — Images

<b>Maen Crwn</b>Posted by Meic Meic Posted by Meic
22nd January 2012ce

Y Meini Hirion (Stone Circle) — Images

<b>Y Meini Hirion</b>Posted by thesweetcheat thesweetcheat Posted by thesweetcheat
24th July 2011ce

Monument 280 (Standing Stones) — Images

<b>Monument 280</b>Posted by thesweetcheat thesweetcheat Posted by thesweetcheat
24th July 2011ce

Cefn Coch (Cairn(s)) — Images

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Showing 1-10 of 214 posts. Most recent first | Next 10