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Previous 10 | Showing 21-30 of 395 posts. Most recent first | Next 10 
Maen-y-Bardd (Dolmen / Quoit / Cromlech) — Fieldnotes |
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Even the track feels ancient, a deep green channel between collapsing drystone walls enlivened by vibrant purple foxgloves at this time of year. We pass Ffon-y-cawr, leaning crazily on the other side of the wall. Another one to save for a proper visit, because from here we can see the main objective for today. Maen-y-Bardd is at once bigger and smaller than I expected it to be. It’s perfectly proportioned and looks out over the wide valley of Afon Conwy, the river itself winding lazily through the centre. And there are mountains, and hills, and little fields, and a huge cloud-filled sky. What a place. “Stone out of song” goes a poem I hold very close to my heart. But did the song come first, or the stone? Was a bard buried here, or did the place make poets of its visitors? We stop for a good while. Even the dogs seem content to sit here. At length an interruption comes in the form of a farmer in his tractor, cutting the bracken in the field next door. The spell is broken. We head uphill. This post appears as part of the blog post "Stone out of song – Bwlch y Ddeufaen and Maen y Bardd 9 July 2011"
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Posted by thesweetcheat19th May 2015ce |
Cae Coch (Standing Stone / Menhir) — Fieldnotes |
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Cae Coch standing stone is first, just a short pull up a bracken and grass covered slope from the track. It’s one of those eternally pleasing stones with a completely different aspect depending on which side you view it from. The broad face is turned towards the track and is perpendicular to Pen-y-Gaer (Caerhun) hillfort, but side-on the profile is slender with a bend in the middle. The views across the Conwy valley are worth the visit alone. An unexpectedly good site. As we approached the stone the blue sky had turned unexpectedly dark, and now looks like night has arrived early. It rains, just for a moment. And then it’s gone, so that by the time we regain the track much of the blue has returned. This post appears as part of the blog post "Stone out of song – Bwlch y Ddeufaen and Maen y Bardd 9 July 2011"
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Posted by thesweetcheat 19th May 2015ce |
Bwlch-y-Ddeufaen (Standing Stones) — Fieldnotes |
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The two stones that give the pass its name are a big step up in size from the ankle biters of Cerrig Pryfaid. Both are taller than me, and there’s some serious girth going on too. The tapering southern stone is a beauty, Blossom and I struggle to reach round it with our combined outstretched arms. There’s a small, shallow drill hole on one side, as if someone foolishly attempted to convert this into a gatepost and was struck dead for their temerity before getting very far. I’ll leave Rhiannon to find some suitably doomy folkore to confirm the point. By contrast, the northern stone is flat-topped and appears to shine out its whiteness against the dark heather. On closer inspection, the whiteness is entirely illusory, the stone isn’t quartz at all but a light grey. There are two further, shorter uprights close to the northern stone, one of which is indeed a quartzy rock. Their placement isn’t obvious but reminds me somewhat of a scaled-up version of the little followers of Maen Mawr in South Wales. In amongst the chocks at the base of the northern stone is one very dark rock, a matt coal black in colour. It’s not clear whether this is a later addition as it doesn’t seem to be doing much chocking. We don’t realise that there’s a fan of much smaller uprights close to the southern stone, and in truth a visit in summer vegetation isn’t the best time to look for them. It is a great time to admire the purple flowers adorning the heather though. Once again, the setting is excellent. The views are similar to those from Cerrig Pryfaid, but with added elevation giving a fresh perspective to the outcrops of Pen y Castell. The stones are not set on the crest of the pass, so there’s no view northwards to speak of. Instead they turn their impassive faces resolutely southeast, looking down the valley of the Tafalog, heading off to join the great Afon Conwy three or four miles away. Surrounded now by pylons and cables, yet they retain their dignity against these huge, transitory metal giants. Time is on their side after all. I’m really taken with these stones. The sense of deep time seems to hang around them, from the ageless mountains, through the monument builders, the tramp of Roman soldiers, into a hinterland of iron and wire. Rather than detracting, the pylons add to this sense that we’re standing in the midst of a palimpsest, layers of time and people still there, just below the surface. And perhaps we’re a shadowy presence in earlier and later times, too. This post appears as part of the blog post "Stone out of song – Bwlch y Ddeufaen and Maen y Bardd 9 July 2011"
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Posted by thesweetcheat 19th May 2015ce |
Cae Coch (Standing Stone / Menhir) — Images (click to view fullsize) |
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Posted by thesweetcheat 19th May 2015ce |
The Giantess' Apronful (Cairn(s)) — Fieldnotes |
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From stone circle to cairn. Barclodiad y Gawres is a good size (15-20m irregular diameter), composed of large cobbles with a central scoop. It’s dotted here and there with clumps of stonecrop, the pink-white five pointed flowers a splash of summer brightness against the grey stones. We entirely fail to see the cist, or either of the other cairns that are supposedly close by. A little way to the southeast we come across a small arrangement of stones, which look like they’ve been placed deliberately but not as anything obviously identifiable. Blossom’s dogs find nice big boulders to stand on and survey the area. The visual focus is the prominent Bwlch-y-Ddeufaen standing stones, visible from here, nestled in the v-shaped pass between the ridges of the Carneddau and Foel Lwyd. The flanking pylons fail to detract from the setting, despite their best efforts. Elsewhere this cairn would be worth a proper stop, but here it’s probably the least arresting of the day’s sites. And we can see the next one already, so it’s time to head off. This post appears as part of the blog post "Stone out of song – Bwlch y Ddeufaen and Maen y Bardd 9 July 2011"
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Posted by thesweetcheat 18th May 2015ce Edited 19th May 2015ce |
Cerrig Pryfaid (Stone Circle) — Fieldnotes |
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It’s always exciting to start the day with a stone circle, especially one you’ve not been to before. Composed of diminutive stones, Cerrig Pryfaid is certainly no Avebury in purely megalithic terms. But the setting elevates it to something quite special. The near-perfect circle sits in an amphitheatre of rock, broken only to the southeast where Pen y Gaer overlooks the wide sweep of the fertile Conwy Valley. Even here the longer view is filled with rank upon rank of high hills. The southwestern prospect is entirely blocked by the towering wall of the Carneddau mountains, crowned by Bronze Age cairns on the summits of Carnedd y Ddelw and Drum. To the north Foel Lwyd, the western buttress of the Tal y Fan ridge, rises in a jagged jumble of boulders and outcrops. Two small outliers stand to the west of the circle, both with tantalising sunrise alignments (midwinter, autumn equinox). But today it’s getting towards midday, in July. So we make do with the earthlier delights of the landscape and views before heading back towards the Pass and our next site. This post appears as part of the blog post "Stone out of song – Bwlch y Ddeufaen and Maen y Bardd 9 July 2011"
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Posted by thesweetcheat 18th May 2015ce Edited 19th May 2015ce |
Maen Penddu (Standing Stone / Menhir) — News |
Maen Penddu defaced with CrossGGAT have reported that someone has scratched a cross into the surface of Maen Penddu. Not dissimilar from the cross on one of the stones at The Druid's Circle nearby. Seems there's still some people who think pagan monuments need to be "Christianised" https://twitter.com/GwyneddArch/status/599260598694649857/photo/1 |
Posted by thesweetcheat 18th May 2015ce |
Foel Lwyd (north) (Barrow / Cairn Cemetery) — Images |
  
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Posted by thesweetcheat 19th January 2015ce |
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