To be honest, I don't think that this stone has got an 'official ' name. On the CARN database, it's simply listed as 'Standing Stone, Rowen'. I believe that to call it the Rowen standing stone would be too general a term, especially as there is at least one other, un-named stone nearer to the village of Rowen than this one. The nearest named feature on the map is the Cae Coch farmhouse, a couple of hundred yards to the west. I'm not the first to call this the Cae Coch standing stone; in The Standing Stones of North-Western Wales (Senior), the author describes all of the stones of the Tal-y-Fan group and calls this one 'the Cae Coch stone'. There's a few postings on the Megalithic Portal of it under this name. I'm surprised that this stone isn't even mentioned in The Ancient Stones of Wales (Barber/Williams), as I was under the impression that that book had every stone on the OS maps for Wales listed in it. Well, they've missed out this one.
I was quite impressed by the hut platforms up there. My attention was more drawn to the one immediately above - what Ironman has called - 'the Rhiw burial chamber' (and I agree that that's as good a name as any for that un-named site). Whoever lived there had at least one burial chamber right near their doorstep ! However, the CARN database has these hut platforms down as being Roman, presumably because they are just above the Roman road, but I don't agree with that interpretation.
Last weekend, fifteen of us hired the whole Rowen youth hostel, just a few minutes walk down the Roman road at Rhiw, for the weekend and had a great time. We had to go to Conway to get the key and open the hostel up for ourselves. We soon had the coal fire lit and made ourselves at home and it was an excellent base for exploring the area. The road up to the hostel is the steepest I've ever driven up - 1:3 - and half of the cars never made it. Some of us want to do it again, one weekend isn't enough time for investigating the whole area.
Baz
 Reply | with quote | Posted by baza
10th April 2004ce
15:38 |
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Head To Head 
A Name At Last! Thanks Baza! (FourWinds)