Latest Fieldnotes

Standing at just over 1 meter tall this stone has spwerb views of the River Urie, Barra and Bennachie, seemingly the stone is aligned to this but has been used as a ‘rubbing stone’. But what a shape, bang on line with Mither Tap.

When parking for Dilly Hill 1 go into the next foeld north, half way up the hill which also has another standing stone. What I didn’t but now know that a remains of a cairn are near the top and a local housing estate was built on top of a probably Bronze Age village.

Visited 23/10/2010.

A free day – and golden autumn sunshine beckoned …

We stopped at Rodmarton long barrow,aka Windmill Tump, on our way to a  Cotswold walk around Oakridge and Bisley . The plan was to walk to three different OS marked long barrows in an attempt to see what remained of them. Before this, however, my friend, now something of a Cotswold long barrow enthusiast, had identified Rodmarton as one not yet visited.

Rodmarton was a wonderful way to kick off – the sun still low in the sky and frost on the grass when we took the turning to Trull not far from Cirencester. The barrow’s position, like most long barrows, was a joy – with views of the open farmland all around. Quite a few large trees growing on the around the edges of the barrow (a golden Beech, Oak and Ash) and evidence of some large tree stumps on the barrow. The three burial chambers are easy to identify though sadly they have collapsed in on themselves now (quite possibly due tree root damage) – just two entrance stones remain visible.

The English Heritage information board says: “A late Neolithic shrine incorporating at least three stone ‘porthole’ entrances. It was crudely excavated by antiquarians in the 19th century and its contents rifled”.

As we drove away,we were reminded we were in ‘horsey’ country when we encountered a hunt about to set off; being an ex-townie this was a first for me so I sat quietly on my emotions and observed this privileged group of people doing what they felt was their god-given right. It was gratifying to see a large deer run across the field behind them, unseen – away and free.

The walk later was golden and crisp – we passed Money Tump near Bisley; visited Seven Wells in the village of Bisley; and walked to Giant’s Stone (overgrown and unidentifiable as a long barrow) before heading back late afternoon.

Just in case they read this, a very big thank you to my friend for the transport and enthusiasm – without which this lovely day would not have happened.

Blimey – They’ve let this place go a bit! 14 October 2010

This place has a few names. Lamlash Road Circle on Canmore. Blairmore Circle locally. Lamlash Stone Circle on TMA. They were the first stones I ever visited on Arran over thirty years ago. Regardless of what the circle is called, this group of stones occupies a superb location, albeit rendered rather impotent, being hemmed in by hundreds of acres of Sitka Spruce on both sides of the road (thoughh to be fair, some of the forestry is at last being cleared). As I approached the outlier, I set up a Barn Owl which had been using the stone as a perch to vomit up its pellets. It lifted off silently and drifted into the trees towards Clauchlands leaving its last pellet on the outlier, steaming slightly in the cold of the morning.
The four surviving stones are perched on a slight knoll, at the highest point on the road between Lamlash and Brodick. The stones were barely poking their heads up out of the mass of heather and bracken. The site used to be regularly cleared of the heather and bracken though this hasn’t happened for a for a while!. A few years back a fire caused some cracking and damage to the outlier. A rock cut cist was found in the centre of the three main stones but isn’t exposed nowadays. There are other large stones half hidden under the peat on and around the mound. There is little to be seen or made sense of here now. This site should be an almighty place. It should look North to Goatfell, Cir Mhor and the jagged ridges of North Arran. Instead it is hemmed in by scrubby Birch, Willow and the massive Spruce plantations of the 1930’s and 1940’s. To the South, Holy Island, Blairmore Standing Stones and the robbed out Dunan Beag and Dunan Mor cairns are now invisible, swamped by forestry.
Through the forestry track another mile to the coast leads you to the hillfort at Clauchlands (not listed on TMA). The forest trek takes you through some of the best Pitchstone areas on Arran and you can grab yourself a little souvenir pebble of the shiny glassy stone our ancestors loved so much. A beautiful circular walk takes you back to Brodick by the very best pitchstone outcrops at Corriegills.
I believe that one day these stones at Lamlash Road could be sympathetically restored to something rather special. The site’s original majesty was in its location. With the forestry removal currently underway on this magical island there is a real opportunity to re-instate the views and carefully excavate the peaty knoll and its immediate surroundings for the surviving stones fallen comrades. But I wont hold my breath.

This is a lone barrow just off the South Downs Way track, but perhaps more interesting are the earthworks alongside it. On MAGIC it merely states ‘field system’. Not sure if they are contemporary with the barrow but could be medieval as a few miles further on just beyond Millbarrows, also on the track, is Lomer Medieval Village (remains of) which has a similar feel and look.

Visited 23.10.10
I parked in the large free car park in the village of Ystradfellte and headed up the road/track which runs directly from the car park, uphill towards Tyle farm. You will shortly come to a turning right towards the farm, but keeping walking straight up the hill. The track now becomes rougher and you go through two metal gates. After the second gate you come out onto open moor land. When you get to the brow of the hill look ahead, a bit to the left, and you will see the rocky outcrop where Gelli-Nedd Hillfort stands.
There is no path to follow, just make your way across the boggy ground as best you can. At the foot of the rocky outcrop you have to climb over a fence – it’s not in very good condition so it is fairly easy to get over. Head for the left hand side of the outcrop and you will see the fairly deep rock cut ditch and the remains of the fallen stone ramparts. (If you look at the stonework in the field wall you just climbed over you will see the stones look remarkably similar!) The defences of the Hillfort seem to consist of stone walls and vertical cliffs. There are decent views from the top.
It takes 30 minutes to walk from the car park to the Hillfort although it is reasonably easy going. The rocky outcrops in this part of the Brecon Beacons National Park reminded me of mini versions of the ones you find along the central section of Hadrian’s Wall.

Back To The Old House – 24 October 2010

Back in Ayr for the weekend. I was born here and my parents (177 years between them) still live in the house I grew up in. I really hadn’t thought of there were any sites I could visit or photograph while I was visiting. But of course memory sometimes drags one up...
A dazzling sunny October Sunday meant a wee drive up to the top of the Carrick Hills for the most incredible views of Arran. The crystal clear skies meant we could see cars and houses on the island far across the Firth of Clyde. Driving back into Ayr along the coast road I suddenly remembered Stonefield Park! My OH had her camera – Oh Yes! In my early teens, my best pal used to live in the street next to the stone and it was our rendezvous point where we’d meet up on our bikes. Thirty five years later, I pulled off the Doonfoot Road and found this old stone just where I’d last left it.
It stands on a wee patch of grass with a few nice trees around it in a very quiet street. The actual site could hold at least two house plots and is worth its weight in gold in a rather exclusive and very expensive area of Ayr’s housing. I think we are very lucky this six footer wasn’t bulldozed back in the sixties when the nearby bungalows were built.
The stone is quite cheese – holed on one of its faces. There is a certain phallic element when viewed facing North . There is absolutely no landscape context in which it is possible to view this stone, but it really does give the little street a quality which no other street in Ayr has.

Torr an Loisgte

Notes in Grey Weather – Morning 13 October 2010

With a grey morning mist and low cloud across the Firth of Clyde, I set off early to seek out Torr an Loisgte. I’d been intrigued by Greywether’s pictures on here and had been longing to check out the site for myself. Torr an Loisgte was my “must do” during this October week with my family on Arran. We were staying at one of the cottages at Point House at King’s Cross Point and from a vantage point on the way up the winding access I could make out the Giant’s Graves on their now deforested terrace. On my OS Explorer map the cairn appeared to be a couple of hundred yards to the West and about 45 feet above the [Giant’s Graves].
I parked by the bus terminus at the South end of Whiting Bay and headed up the Glenashdale Falls Path. I took the left turn up the steep hairpin bends of the route to Giant’s Graves. They used to have hundreds of steps cut into the path years back and I’m glad they have relaid the path. The circular route via Glenashdale is a bit gentler on the way in but I was in a bit of a hurry, having haggled an hour or two off from my OH and Junior. I was up to the Giant’s Graves in fifteen minutes, sweating out the previous night’s Cab Sauv and replacing it with a generic supermarket version of a popular energy drink. The Giant’s Graves had been visited by some ***** who’d lit a fire close in by the North cairn and piled up felled tree trunks over the chamber like some kinda log roof. I couldn’t leave it like that and kicked the hearth and ashes into the felled forestry then I tossed the trunks off the edge of the terrace like a salvo of cabers. Job done, I pressed upwards and onwards.
Greywether described Torr an Loisgte as “Not easy to get to”. Times change. It is now impsy-pimpsy, easy-peasy since they felled the forestry. Simply continue on the wee footpath from Giant’s Graves until you reach the old forestry road. Turn right, follow it round the hillside for about two hundred yards. Stop at the picnic table by the roadside and scramble up the bank above the road. This large cairn is behind the wee hillock in front of you.
I wasn’t quite prepared for the sight which met me. A pandemonium of tumbled stone, half opened chambers and hints of a huge façade all coated in a thick blanket of moss, turf, peat and lichen. I found it very difficult to get a handle on the site at first, as the layout of visible chambers seemed to make little sense in relation to each other. Strange uprights emerged from the middle of the cairn, there were obvious chamber collapses in some areas and only one area (the North end next to the wee hillock) seemed to be in its original state. I could not work the visible and slightly open capstones into any kind of sensible orientation, and the notion of a row of central chambers seemed farcical given the carnage which faced me. Even the façade seemed to start going one way then I’d find a second row of façade uprights which bore no relation to the initial one. The cairn was only first reported in the 1970’s and as far as I know has never been excavated. Downhill all that is really left of the Giant’s Graves are the central chambers and a few façade stones, the cairn material now exists as a series of drystane dykes which run around the hill below. In comparison, Torr an Loisgte appears to be fairly complete and unrobbed, but the central and southern end look like someone has taken a JCB and pushed it around. To me, trying to make sense of Torr an Loisgte was a bit like looking at heap of scrap metal and trying to work out how a car works. I am sure there is a LOT of archaeology still in Torr an Loisgte and its comparatively recent discovery ensured it escaped the attentions of 19th Century treasure seekers and gentleman antiquaries.
I took a set of pictures and found my OH’s complex digital camera had stuck itself on Black and White setting. I couldn’t get it back to colour so my apologies for the monochrome set. I sat on the wee hillock and gazed out to Holy Island drinking in the view and the early morning quiet. No-one from TMA had contributed any notes or photos since Greywether’s visit back in May 2005 and I wondered if anyone at all had been up here since then. This long forgotten cairn does not even have an agreed name “Torr an Loisgte” here on TMA, “Torran Loisgte” with the Ordnance Survey and according to Canmore the hill is called “Torr on Loisgte”. Even the gaelic word “Loisgte” is a bit vague, my limited knowledge suggests it means “Hill of the fire” or “Hill of the burning”. I returned to my car by the Glenashdale Falls path… more confused about Torr an Loisgte than when I arrived…. but in a good way.

Inspired by the arrival yesterday of the book “An English Countryside Explored – The Land of Lettice Sweetapple” (By Peter Fowler and Ian Blackwell) I set off this morning to do a circular walk through Piggledene over to Fyfield Down (now a designated nature reserve) and up to Devil’s Den.

As Rhiannon pointed out in her fieldnotes, the A4 is fast and dangerous at the point of entry into Piggledene. The friend I walked with today left their car in Lockeridge Road at the small village of Fyfield (SU 145685) and we walked along a footpath for about a quarter of a mile before crossing over the A4.

My first visit to Piggledene was several years ago when I was still quite new to the area; subsequently I always thought without transport or a thorough knowledge of the landscape it would be difficult to access. I have since discovered the Wilts & Dorset bus route 96 (Swindon to Pewsey) also stops on the A4 at Fyfield.

As we climbed over the stile today, it was clear nothing had changed – no fox this time as there was on my first visit though still the strong sense of time standing still. A valley of greywethers with curious sheep in the morning sunshine; venerable old hawthorns and a clear trodden path to follow around to Fyfield Down. The obvious path is on higher ground above the stony valley, it was an incredibly peaceful walk along to Devil’s Den. The knowledge that Devil’s Den dolmen never existed in its present form until the early part of the 20th century (being on the remains of a genuine neolithic long barrow) does not detract from its stony charm.

This walk with clear directions and a map is available as a Ramblers publication “12 Walks Around Marlborough” either directly or from the Swindon Tourist Information Centre.

I visited the Roman site in Corbridge last month but didn’t see this cup marked stone. Don’t know whether I just missed it or it has been moved? It certainly wasn’t in the museum and there is no mention of it in the official E.H. visitor’s guide.

I visited the gold mines two years ago on what I remember was a nice sunny day. (N.T. site) What I thought was a small valley was in fact the quarried side of the hill. An interesting place to visit in a very pretty valley.
Whilst I was there I saw a large squarish block of stone which I just assumed had been used for some reason to do with the mining.
It appears that I was actually looking at Carreg Pumsaint? If you visit the mine the stone is easy enough to spot.
I tried to buy a visitor’s guide (as I always do as a keepsake) but I was told they didn’t do any!
Luckily a member of staff gave me a battered old photo copied booklet one of them had made themselves! (Thank you to that person)

Deer Park – 12 October 2010

The simplest way to approach these stones is to drive North out of Brodick towards Corrie. Pass by the Cladach Retail Outlet Village and continue along the coast road for a few hundred yards till you get to the vehicle entrance to Brodick Castle on your left.
Drive up to the Castle Carpark (there is no charge for parking or for simply passing through) and then exit the car park (there is a one way traffic flow system through Brodick Castle grounds) and continue through the castle grounds. You will pass a house on the right called Kennels Cottage and then descend to a small bridge at the start of a stretch of road bounded by Beech Hedges on either side. Pull in here and park. The field with two stones is on your right. The solitary stone stands in the field on the left. They are seperated by the Castle driveway exit road.
The largest stone A is about twelve feet high, stone B thirty yards away is 9 feet. Stone C in the next field is nearly eight feet (and leaning!)The three stones seem to form some kind of an alignment, but with the Beech hedges and road in between it is difficult to judge precisely what. There is sufficient space for two intervening stones. The Brodick Heritage Centre has on display, a cist which was found on the same alignment, thirty yards from stone B towards stone C. It was ploughed up in 1980 and contained an intact food vessel.
These fields are under barley almost every summer and usually you cant get near the stones till after the harvest. It is now under grass and yesterday was full of jumpy inquisitive stirks. Thankfully they have been moved elsewhere today and I can get right up close to these big stones. The tallest one has the traditional Arran Sandstone fluted and weathered top. The site reeks of having been something bigger originally but this flat, fertile land is at a high premium here in the more Northern end of the island and has been under the plough for many centuries. It is easy to imagine that there was once much more to this site than the three surviving roughly aligned stones and the cist. However it is what we have left and for that we should be glad.

During the winter earlier this year I came looking for this cairn knowing full well that agriculture might have completely destroyed it. However snow defeated me that time and an unknown RSC more than made up for the non find.

With this field being harvested it was much easier to find. Basically all that is left is the cairn’s base which is oval in shape running at almost 17 meters north to south and 13 meters wide. What remains is about 0.5 meters at its highest. This cairn will vanish but the location is superb. It is surrounded by RSCs, hillforts, cairns and standing stones. Another link in the valley which runs from Tap O Noth down to Bennachie.

From the small town of Insch head east past Dunnydeer and Stonehead. Keep going until Newton of Wardhouse. The site is in the second field in the north side of the road, a walk of no more than 300 meters.

Visited 14/10/2010.

October Moyish Frenzy – 16 October 2010

An hour till the ferry

Shaggy-haired Junior dodged a bullet, what with Jimmy the Brodick Barber being shut on Saturdays. So instead of a a much needed clipping, he and my OH popped off to purchase bespoke chocolates and play crazy golf. I checked my map and decided on Moyish. I had last been up to the Moyish stone more than half my lifetime ago, as a teenager on a camping holiday. I’m still coming to Arran...
I had time for a quick scoot up the road beside the Co-op and turn right, then first left. Time was not on my side, the hot October sun beat down on me and I regretted wearing my fleece and jacket. I found myself puffing and panting my way up the street in a small housing estate. A children’s play area lay ahead which hadn’t been there thirty years ago, I climbed over the fence at the back, turned right through a hedge, crossed a deep, steep sided stream, over a barbed wire fence and through a gorse hedge.

An absolute beauty of a stone. A giant in the regular Arran monolith style, it stands with a slight lean to the East. Its top is fluted and weathered like the tallest ones on Machrie Moor. It stands on a fairly level field terrace high above Brodick with superb views East to Mainland Scotland and North to Goatfell and Cir Mhor. Set in a reedy field bounded on the West by a Beech and Hawthorn hedge with turning leaves and deep red berries. I lean against the stone and rest for five minutes drinking in the view, the peace and the last seven days spent here on Arran.
Wandering back down the hill with the car parked in line at the ferry terminal and Junior and my OH sitting waiting for me on the Co-op wall, it didn’t feel too bad to be leaving Arran. I know we’ll be back again next year and Moyish had hit me with a last minute boost.

Note
“This is one of the most confusing digs I have seen. Wessex Archaeology is still evaluating the meaning of the various excavations and finds, therefore any comments I make are entirely provisional! More of the site to the east will be excavated within the next year or two. With thanks to the WA guides.”
(See plan for current details)

The site is on the cusp of the TMA remit being late IA early Romano/British. Neolithic artifacts have been found but so far no trace of any houses etc.
A large ditch and bank were constructed in a (assumed) square or rectangular shape and several parallel drainage (?) ditches led to the lowest part of the site. Another, smaller, ditch was constructed with an “entrance” to the W. Outside this 5 or 6 postholes have been found. They don’t seem to suggest a building, might they have been “totemic” in function?

The most obvious features of the site are the numerous “quarry pits”. There seems, at present, no obvious explanation for them. What were the inhabitants digging for? Clay, flints, gravel or sand are possibilities as they appear to follow “seams” and were backfilled as soon as they were exhausted as there is no sign of weathering. Geofiz seems to be of little use as the underlying geology brings up too many anomalies.

Some cremation deposits have been found within the perimeter of the site which suggests native customs as the Romans usually had separate cemeteries outside.

The area seems to have abandoned for a considerable time (100years?) but re-occupied in later Roman times.

The former MOD buildings to the E (hence the site name) are being removed and excavations will re-commence when the site is cleared, these may discover the main settlement.

The whole site is to be developed as a housing estate, Avon Fields.

Access
Guided tour only. Consult Wessex Archaeology for details.

11 October 2010.

We headed South through the forestry from the car park a mile or two south of Machrie. The car park is well signposted and a visit to the caves is best done as a circular walk. Over the years we have built a preference for walking in heading South and returning to the car park along the cliff walk to the North of the caves. It just seems easier, and this walk does involve walking over a few hills (The Big Hill of the King – Torr Righ Mor) on the way in and (The Little Hill of the King – Tor Righ Beag) on the way back. The shortened name Tormore is given to an area of farms a mile to the North.
Just three short months ago we were here in baking summer sunshine. Now today the wind is driving into us with an arctic blast although the sun is shining brightly. My other and better half thoughtfully carried my fleece and waterproof out of the car boot leaving it usefully hanging in a wardrobe in our cottage at King’s Cross Point on the other side of the island. I pulled on my hat with earflaps and gritted my teeth as we marched into the wind. Junior ran ahead doing aeroplane impressions along the path. It takes about twenty five minutes of stiff walking to get to the cliffs above the caves and begin the descent.
(Anyone with kids who visits this site might want to detour up the first burn along the shore to see the dinosaur footprints on a sandstone slab. There are also more dino-footprint trails on the Cleats Shore below Bennecarrigan between Torrylinn and Sliddery on the South end of the island)

There were plenty of visitors on the Sunday lunchtime when we visited. They all really focussed in on the main King’s Cave. Some christian person had thoughtfully painted yellow emulsion over an ancient incised cross. Although I dont do chalking of cups, rings, carvings etc I can understand why people used to do that kind of thing. But this emulsion is new since July, so what gives? Why? I suppose I should be glad they didn’t daub their cornflake yellow Dulux over the human figures, cups, rings, Ogham writing, fish, deer and curly celtic snakes. There is also an enormous amount of graffitti from the last couple of hundred years. And everything is covered in a semi-congealed, cave-slime concretion which makes photography difficult in the deep darkness.
We picnic on the shore further along and then explore some of the other caves. A few of the others have graffitti and carvings. There are about twenty caves in all and a few natural arches. There is a superb cave, fourth in from the North, which has a twenty metre long “corridor”, a metre wide, which ends with a great chamber off on the right of the “corridor”. I got a bit ruffled in the very dark enclosed space and had to leg it out pronto. I would have been useless in a Chilean Mine.
The walk back out is an easy one, once you are up on the cliff top. Out at sea, the wind whipped the Kilbrannan Sound into a froth of dancing white horses and reminded me that I had no fleece or jacket. Once the path opens out beyond the forestry the views North are spectacular. Machrie is spread before you and in the distance the big solitary stone at Druid stands out like an exclamation mark near the mouth of the Iorsa.
The caves are well worth a visit, the whole visit can be done in about two and a half hours (taking your time) and while the site is listed here as of uncertain antiquity... you’ll be in no doubt that these caves have been used by people for as long as they have been landing their boats on Arran’s shores.

Strathspey siad quite correctly that how the Brownhills cairn, near Turriff, survives is something of a miracle despite intensive agricultural use. In direct contast, the Hill Of Foulzie is a sad story of destruction during the 1800s plus more modern mutilations of quarrying, rubbish tip, agricultural damage. Almost all of the site has gone except for few stones which have been added to by field clearance. It must have been impressive with outstanding views towards Bennachie and Knock. At least several luckier cairns are in sight along with several hill forts.

Going north from Turriff go through King Edward until the next hamlet Keilhill. Turn right following the Balgreen signpost. Balgreen has it’s cairn as does Fisherie further along the road. Foulzie Hill is the first hill climb on the road. Keep going until the White Cottage. The site, somewhat optimistic word, is at the top of the hill behind the trig point some 400 meters from the house.

Visited 16/10/2010.

The stone nearest to the style, top is shaped like Calder idris which it faces

Visited 10.10.10
You will need an O/S map to find this site although once you do, access to the stones is easy.
Firstly I have to say that this is a lovely part of the world and well worth visiting – on a nice day of course!
Anyway, down to business: Park at the entrance to Cwm Garw farm and walk across the cattle grid, down the track towards the farm buildings. The stones are soon seen down the hill towards the left. Do not be tempted to head across the field straight to the stones as the ground is very waterlogged, despite appearing dry. Instead, stay on the track until it curves round and comes closest to the stones (10 minute walk). You will see ‘paths’ through the grass where people have walked over to the stones. This was relatively dry although still squelchy.
Both stones are about 7ft tall – one fat, the other quite thin. The stones seemed to align with the highest point of the mountains to the north.
A farmer was on his tractor in a nearby field, busy with his work. I was not challenged and it looked as though this site had quite a few visitors although there was no one else there when I visited. Well worth a visit when in this fairly remote area.

Visited 10.10.10
Taking the minor road east out of Maenclochog I parked up near the entrance to Temple Druid farm. Opposite the farm is a metal field gate. The standing stone is a mere 20 meters away. The stone is about 6ft tall, pointy at the top and reminded me of a large witches hat. The weather was hot for this time of year (Indian summer weekend) which was great.
This site is very easy to access and worth a visit when in the area of Maenclochog – a pretty little village in itself.

Visited 10.10.10
I parked in Efailwen and walked over the cattle grid and along the track to Maenpica farm, ignoring the ‘Admittance by appointment only’ sign. After walking along the concrete track for 5 minutes the standing stone comes into view in the field to your left, near the overhead cables. The stone appears to be about 6ft high, tapered at the top.
As I was ‘chancing’ the visit anyway, I decided not to risk climbing over the fence and walking across an open field to the stone and settled for a view from the track instead.

Visited 10.10.10
Taking the minor road south east out of Glandy Cross I parked next to the entrance to Maen Hir farm. I walked across the cattle grid and past the two ornamental puffins keeping guard over the farm drive! The standing stone is easily seen to the right and a one minute walk gets you there. The stone is about 4 ft high and right next to the hedge, the top of the stone covered in lichen.
When I visited the field was very boggy despite looking dry and full of cows.

‘Visited’ 10.10.10
When I say visited I mean to say tried to find!
I walked up and down the tall hedgerows, along the lane and along the fields.
Unfortunately I could see no trace of these stones, despite several clambers up the hedgerow at various places. I think you need to visit this area to realise how a 6ft high standing stone can disappear in a hedge. I have never been anywhere where the hedgerows are as tall as they are all around this part of Wales.

Visited 10.10.10
As long as you have an O/S map this site is easy to find and even easier to access.
You can park next to the field gate in which the stone stands and a 2 minute walk will take you to the stone. If you would prefer not to walk across the field without permission the stone is easily seen from the gate. I noticed a number of large stones in both the same field as the standing stone plus the next field over. I have no idea whether there is any connection?

Visited 10.10.10
Really easy to access, in a field just off the B4313 running north out of Maenclochog.
There is plenty of room to park near by and a handy field gate gives you a fine view of the stones. A short but muddy walk will allow you to get up close and personal.
** If you have recently visited the stones and lost a pair of red frame spectacles I am happy to report they are still there. On a boulder next to the larger of the standing stones. I assume they weren’t some sort of ‘offering’?! **
Well worth a visit when in this lovely part of Wales. I liked the village a lot also.

‘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?