GLADMAN wrote:
thesweetcheat wrote:
It's fascinating. As you've said on many occasions, I think the watercourses/sources are the key to these sites. The mountains seem almost incidental at Nant Tarw, although when I was there they were obscured by clouds so I probably didn't get a proper feel for their relationship to the site. I would love to go back there, it's a damn long walk though.
Isn't it just? Of course it's all conjecture... however the fact that the col frames Pen y Fan from the main circle - and both peaks from the row - but nowhere else does suggest an association? The col, of course, is also the route taken by the newly born Nant Tarw from its source.
But for many (moderns ) , it's the hills ,sometimes in association with the heavens , that are salient as an explanation for the siting . It wasn't always thus and probably dates from Thom and the later popularity of Watkins . It can also be shown to be mistaken .
http://www.cpat.org.uk/walks/nanttarw.pdf . Points out that the cairn at SN 827 247 also has view of PyF as will other points in the area .
Apart from the awful pretend phenomenological nonsense of Tilley and Cummings there have been attempts at providing comprehensive objective studies on the siting of monuments in the landscape. Tim Philips with his study of northern chambered cairns and Tatjana Kytmanow 's on portal tombs come to mind .
