The cairn is surrounded by many hut circles centred on NJ880364. I’d hoped to take images of most of them but a torrential downpour sent me running back to car after spying the first hut circle. Various hut circles, causeways etc. are on the banks of the River Ythan. So a fine excuse to go back!
Visited 17/4/2010.
A pair of round barrows on the ridge of Limekiln Hill. The barrows are bowl type and are either side of the B3157 coast road. The northern one is the larger of the two and has some damage done to it by animals. I could not get to the southern barrow as it was surrounded by young bullocks and I bottled out, having been chased in the past.
These mounds are part of a scatter of barrows along this part of the coast, to the east are Tulks Hill and Puncknowle to the west. Five hundred metres to the south is the wonderfully named Labour-in-Vain farm.
Sadly the busy road robs the site of its atmosphere, but the chamber is still worth a visit. You get plenty of odd looks from passing motorists while taking pictures too! Ignoring the road, there are good views towards Myarth and Tor y Foel to the west and the lower slopes of Pen Cerrig-calch to the north. The passage itself faces Mynydd Llangatwg to the SW, which was itself later crowned with an assortment of bronze age cairns.
A walk along the windy escarpment from Pen Allt-mawr cairns, the first cairn (SO203233) is very badly ruined, perched right on the lip over a steep drop. The SW cairn (SO202232) is massive. Although ruined, it is still a very impressive monument, commanding views across to Pen y Fan and the central Beacons. This wild and windy place ... how important must those buried here have been, surveying their world from on high?
Approaching from the south-east (27.3.2010), this is an easy walk along the edge of a grassy saddle from Pen Cerrig-calch summit cairns. The path follows the eastern edge of the plateau, overlooking a steep drop to the valley below. There are extensive views of the central Black Mountains ridge (Waun Fach and Pen y Gadair Fawr) to the north-east.
The summit itself is at the northern-most tip of the plateau, beyond which the land drops steeply away and the wind whips up over the escarpment. The summit cairn itself is typically ruined, with a heavily eroded concrete trig pillar next to it. During a brief stop in this rather bleak spot a glider flew past at eye-level.
The second cairn lies on the western edge of the plateau, at SO206238, between the summit and the further pair of cairns at Pen Gloch-y-pibwr. This cairn has a great view of Mynydd Troed, below and to the north-west. Whatever statement was being made by the people who built these cairns, these are high places, overlooking a wild and untamed landscape even four thousand years later. But ... not a place to linger in a biting north wind, so it’s off round the escarpment edge to Pen Gloch-y-pibwr cairns.
Some new finds from today and one old find from about four years ago turned out to be more ornate on further investigation, having what looks like a cartouche like enclosure around four cups . .The first 2 pics are the old one which is among the older pics but only showing about 8 cups .The other four are two examples of before and after ,they don’t look much but a bit of oblique light and water brings out the motifs .
Head west from Insch on the B9022 towards Kennethmont turning north at the Weets signpost. Cross the railway bridge and stop at the second cottage on the left hand side. There is room to park, I asked permission. The hut circles of this settlement are in the field behind which is reasonably flat. Walking thru the first field is an ankle breaker. There are two hut circles here as follows:
NJ5702 3022.
This is the largest of the two being some 12 meters wide and a 1/2 meter tall. The surrounding bank is 2-3 meters in width with a possible entrance in the south east. It is easy to spot the difference as this one doesn’t resemble a duck pond.
NJ5704 3025.
This one does resemble a duck pond but is probably in better condition. It is almost 11 meters wide and a 1/2 meter in height. The bank is some 3 meters in width with entrance once again to the south east.
The field containing the hut circles has many small cairns dotted about. Just to the south is a very stony field which contains the remnants of a medieval ferm toun. So a historic area indeed!
Visited 15/4/2010.
Leave the A96 north of the Oyne fork turning west at the small village of Colpy taking the Largie road. Turn south for a 1/4 mile at the Wrangham road. Fallow Hill is easily spotted on the left hand side being the small hill with trees on its top. These roads are single track and farm traffic can be a hold up.
Stop at the first group of trees on Wrangham road and follow the dry stane dyke to the small wood. The barrow is straight in front at high end of the hill, with great views of Bennachie and Dunnydeer etc. It is some 8 meters at its maximum width and half a meter in height at its tallest. Beware the rabbits and badgers have had a field day in this wood, so watch your feet. In reality there isn’t much to see here but its a pleasant short work nothing strenuous. Another small piece in a very large jigsaw.
Visited 15/4/2010.
Gate to field containing Bookan Tomb nicely open. Top of this bare now, no plastic. Gate directly right of track is also open and leads into field with the “eminence thrown up by the brecks” [look at the photos and you really cannot see them as other than a tight grouping] – brecks as land of naturally broken appearance rather than brecks as rough land brought into cultivation. The ground is rather damp near the gate as the farmer is drying a hummock of black stuff off. The quarry is in the brecks but I don’t believe The Brecks are all quarry as a walk around shows a proper quarry fenced off from them at a neck N of the mounds and the rest is too curvy.
All the mounds have exposed areas, with HY21SE 24 by the edge of The Brecks undoubtedly the most natural, sitting as it does on the natural rock with its single southern exposure capable of being read as proof either way. There is a steepish drop behind its western end and good rocky outcrops in the cliff-face (though a bit ragged for building methinks). Below its NW’ern end down almost into the brecks are one or two slight oval troughs that might have held something or slipped down from above. Almost under the SW’ern end there is a single rock slab sticking out of the cliff-face, which though almost undoubtedly natural has had an earthfast orthostat set at right angles abutting it as if to hold this back. Just the one orthostat, but definitely not natural.
Sites HY21SE 9 i (nearer to the tomb) & ii (to the N of i) are built partly onto the hillslope and each have several exposed areas, some earth with a few small stones and others with proper rocks. Almost certainly ii is the source of the cist. And not just because it has more structural material about and on it. Calling the feature on its top a circular depression is wholly inadequate. Walk below the eastern flank and look up at the northern end and there is a well-defined near hemisherical bank forming the top edge – despite the excavation definitely an archaeological feature rather than from archaeologist’s workings.
I came up here a few months ago in the snow and the fog, and though I found everything I was looking for I have since found out about a four metre high cairn with cist in the locality, I then decided that another visit would be necessary.
But this time would be almost the opposite of my last trip, in 1953 or thereabouts my Grandad whom I never met took his two daughters to see the Druids circle, my mother told me this after my first visit here ten years ago, it was then that I decided when my children were older I too would bring them here, so , I decided to take my kids one at a time to make it more personal and for more of an impact, I asked my Daughter if she would like to go ” is it up hill” she asked I confirmed that it was and her face fell a bit, I decided a deal sweetener was needed, “we could go the beach first”, and the deal was struck. But then she asked if her brother Eric could come so I said ok, but then somehow their two friends got invited too, deal sweetener indeed.
After a cold and windy three hours on Penmaenmawr beach from where you get a good view of where your’e going, we drove up to the same parking place I used last time, what I usually do is just drive as high as I can then leave the car where I can, sometimes it takes me up to the two pillars carpark sometimes it doesn’t. We hit the uphill footpath in high spirits, throwing a ball to each other to keep their minds off how far we had to go, it worked for a while too but we were barely half way there when the first “how much further” came, ten minutes later the first “I cant go any more” and another ten minutes saw me giving piggy back rides up a mountain, talk about not ideal.
Eeeeventually we arrived on the main footpath that takes you directly to circle 275, we all collapsed in an untidy heap inside the circle and stayed that way untill we saw people walking past. The view is fantastic up here and it wasn’t long for the kids to become interested in their surroundings, I pointed out Llandudno, Anglesey, Graig Llwyd, and above us the Druids circle, our circle, I wonder if Grandad Collins knew of this little circle from S.W Ireland, for that is where his family originated also.
We drifted up the slope to the big circle, the two girls collapsed in a more tidy heap and the boys took to swearing at all the stones daring the oath stone to smite them, when it didnt they went off sliding down grassy slopes, although this wasn’t what I had envisaged, it was good enough, the sun was shining and the birds were singing on the wing, the sound of laughter on the wind and as I circled the stones trying to capture the mood on camera, I soon realised this wasnt a camera day it was a lost in the moment day. I tried halfheartedly to locate the cairn with cist but deduced by its absence that it wasn’t as close to the Druids circle as it looks on the map, forcing me to start planning my next trip up here, an all dayer maybe. After a quick hello to the dishevelled monument 280, we held hands and ran down the hill to Cors y Carneddau, they pulled hard downhill and I pulled hard uphill, and an uneasy equilibrium was struck.
More quick photoes followed by much sitting around, questions and pointing at things and dodgy explanations, the two extra children had never been anywhere like this before, and I felt a certain privalage in being able to show them something cool that isnt plugged in.
We ran and laughed all the way down, passing two young teenage girls on the way, I cant think of any reason they would be taking the long way up to see some stone circles, but then theres no street corners up there either, so perhaps the hills mountains and history really is for everyone.
Hanging Langford Camp, an Iron Age/Romano British settlement, linked by a ditch to a ‘banjo’ type enclosure lying below it, known as Church-end Ring. Very hard to see anything as the site is heavily wooded but you can see some of the earthworks along the southern edge of the woods.
Situated to the south of the village of Hanging Langford, East Castle is a small enclosure with a single bank and ditch which at the most is no more than 1 meter high, and about 50 meters in diameter. Heavily wooded it took a while to find but a nice little site, one of many in the area.
Visited the site today and found access very limited and could only get this shot taken from the village of Little Langford which it sits above.
The relatively modest cairn upon Pen Rhiw-ddu makes a fine hors d’oeuvre for a visit to this, one of South Wales’ finest – and largest – upland cairns at almost 3.5m. Duw, it’s big! What’s more, it crowns a very unfashionable 523m summit, far out on the western fringes of Y Mynydd Du. Although the ‘Beacons Way’ passes close by – not that you would guess, it has to be said – I can not imagine any long distance walker lingering here for very long, if at all. Such people tend not to be interested in ‘piles of old stones’.
The cairn dominates the (approx) western horizon from Carn Pen Rhiw-ddu and, if it wasn’t for the wind, I’d have sworn I could hear it whisper ‘visit me, you know you must....’. Or perhaps that was just the ‘E’ numbers from too much Easter chocolate kicking in – why, we even had to stop on the way from Bridgend to get some more. Whatever the cause, the effect is the same. We have no choice but to comply. At a little over half a mile, the distance between the two monuments is by no means great in hillwalking terms. But bear in mind that this is a ‘proper’ mountain landscape. Peat hags abound, the long grass is liberally sprinkled with ‘ankle breaker’ rocks to catch the unwary... and I shudder to think what it would be like in mist. Quarter may be asked, but will definately not be given up here.... especially with the wind gusting at 40-50 mph. Nice. No, really, I find few things more intoxicating than being out in inclement weather when you’re adequately protected. Not that a family unit of wild ponies, sheltering in a hollow, would appear to agree. They probably have more sense than crazy English people. Curiously one mare, heavily pregnant, judging by the size of her belly, stands aloof from the group, munching grass furiously. Hell, encountering these fantastic creatures is one of the joys of these hills, it really is.
Carn Pen-y-Clogau steadily grows larger as we approach until... wow! Some people certainly spent an awful lot of time building this. An awful long time, indeed. Struggling to the top in the wind, I’m saddened to discover that, even here, the ‘shelter building muppets’ have been at work. But such is life, I guess. Na fe bois, Felna Mae. Excitedly I point out Castell Carreg Cennen, standing a’top its unfeasibly dramatic crag away to the almost exact west. Then, to the south-west, a line of suspicious ‘humps’ crowning a ridge in seriously evocative fashion. I check the map – Tair Carn Uchaf and Tair Carn Isaf. How much more has this country to offer? The vibe here is fantastic and I wish we had more than a couple of hours. But what a couple of hours...
Is it or isn’t it ? I dunno ,if pushed I would say it’s not prehistoric but obviously not natural ,the stones have been set and the central one toppled . It’s not in Canmore or on any map . I can’t believe it wasn’t noticed by RCAHMS when they visited the nearby hut circle and enclosures .FWIW it’s aligned 42 degrees and the resulting declination is about a degree and a half off the major standstill which is probabaly coincidence .But then again , nahh .
At least they bothered to call it a monument, it doesn’t even get mentioned in AB’s stone circle guide, and Coflein doesn’t have a description but it does have four pics and the vague title of Penmaenmawr stone circle, it is much more than any of this it’s North Wales most mysterious “monument”. No one seems to know what it was, three of the stones seem to be in a straight line but in amongst the megalithic melee
there is what looks like to me another little stone circle or kerb for a cairn.
What ever it turns out to be, for now it is an enigma more worthy of an excavation than any other “monument” up here. It was obviously an important something and is in a prominent position, Tal y Fan is long and rocky (with two notches for alignments?) and dominates the south western aspect, from the stones we can see the big Druids circle and turning round down to the Cors y Carneddau.
Easter Monday dawns damp and highly overcast in South Wales. So what else is new? Oddly, however, the mountain forecast reckons the cloudbase will rise above 2,000ft by mid-day. Yeah, right. But worth taking a chance nonetheless. We head for the western extremity of the prosaically named Y Mynydd Du – The Black Mountain... on days like today, believe me, it certainly is.
Beyond Pontardawe the A474 heads northwards through Cwm Gors, the exquisite cairn circle of Carn Llechart, out of sight but most definately not out of mind, above to our left. The A4069 branches right towards Brynamman and then begins the ascent alongside the western bank of the Nant Garw [note the riverside prehistoric settlement, below to your right] into as bleak and hostile an environment as you could probably imagine. The uncompromising slopes of Garreg Llwyd guard the pass above to our right, equally brutal terra incognita rises to our left. The traveller is therefore left completely unprepared for the sweeping, majestic northern vista which suddenly materialises upon reaching the parking area at Rhiw Wen. Or at least he/she would be if the whole bloody mountainside wasn’t engulfed in cloud! Perhaps this wasn’t a good idea, after all? However us English folk have a secret weapon to deploy in times such as these... there’s always time for a nice cup of tea! Sure enough, the cloud mantle begins to waiver in the gale-force winds and release its hold. Damn, I do believe the Met boys are actually going to be right!
Garreg Llwyd, with its Bronze Age cairn, is the obvious choice for an outing, but it is Carn Pen Rhiw-ddu, to the south-west, which is our target for today.... the perceptive may well have discerned a clue in its title as to why. Anyway, a short scramble beyond disused quarrying brings us to a rock strewn landscape featuring an east-west craggy ridge topped by a pretty neat cairn. Not especially large, but well built, albeit defaced somewhat by the obligatory internal ‘shelter’. The views – now that the cloud has lifted – are pretty superb, not only northwards towards the beautiful, fertile valley of the Afon Tywi, with Mid Wales beyond, but eastwards across the northern escarpment of Mynydd Du itself, the two, great cairns of Carnau’r Garreg Las prominent upon their ridge.
However it is the view to the west which is arguably the most intriguing. I check the map – with much difficulty in the wind, it has to be said – and note that the great stone pile on the horizon must be Carn Pen-y-Clogau. Needless to say the Mam Cymru’s up for it.
themodernantiquarian.com/post/84423/fieldnotes/carn_penyclogau.html
Its only a five minute walk from Druids circle etc so theres really no excuse not to come down to this big barrow (and the ring/kerb cairns).
The barrow sits at the bottom of a very barrow shaped hill called Moelfre (345m) itself crowned by a cairn which Ive yet to inspect. The summit of the barrow was probably around three metres tall in its day but since it was erected..... a giant was passing and mistook the burial mound for a pile of mashed potatoes and took a giant sized mouthful from off its top, immediately realising his mistake (for he wasnt so stupid as to swallow it) he spat out the mouthful in a left to right fashion causing the linear feature we now crudely call “a wall”.
In the beautiful sunshine and hidden from the still cold wind we sat in the hollowed out barrow and looked out across the land, I tried to impart some historical facts about prehistoric times but they seemed more interested in finding the body that must surely be buried beneath our tired derriers. Oi, stop digging !!!
Oh beautiful glorious sunshine, the first time I came here a few months ago it was so snowy and foggy that I couldnt even see my hands in front of my face (my exhaggeration), but this late afternoon visit is sensational, the birdsong, the playing children and the sunny views all came together perfectly, there was a summers day in the park feel to it, nothing to do but relax.
The two different cairns at Cors y Carneddau couldnt be any more dissimilar, the smaller kerb cairn has eight smallish stones and reminds me heavily of Cumbria’s Little Meg (minus art). Whilst the big ring cairn just fifty yards to the south east has maybe only half a dozen stones in its ring though theyre quite big. Cairn material oozes from the grass in several places within the ring reminding me again of Cumbria’s Brats hill stone circle.
Pretty little circle 275 over the slight hill has had many TMA visitors as has the Druids circle but I cant beleive no-ones been here but me, come on everybody exert your self a little this summer and come and explore North Wales biggest Necropolis/temples. ( probably not but what the hey)
With a bit of tidying up this would be impressive, the tomb is easy to get to, not far off the roadside but almost completely enclosed in brambles in the middle of a ploughed field what a pity, if this was in France it would be a tourist attraction, If just one person in the Public Works had responsibility for this kind of work our smaller antiquities would be much more presentable in a very short time
Don’t know how I missed the entrance to the ?souterrain before, just inside the fence on the S side of the road at HY2706715113. Guess I looked for a channel further down whereas it starts as a hole like a badgers set (no sign of the masonry walls in the dark, should have used the camcorder’s nightlight) literally a couple of feet from the actual fence behind three flat stones. I assume these are a few of the lintels from the intermittent roof of the built passage. This is described as 800cm square to begin with, though perhaps narrowing further on – it goes south-easterly to a ditch but after some 2.5m turns quickly eastwards and then the hillslope and presence of mud stopped investigations progressing to what they describe as the inner end (or else it goes ~100m down to the loch). By the western stone I could see a masonry wall of thin stones behind a grass fringe. Not wishing to be disturbed by the ploughman in the next field I did not enter for a more thorough going over. This side of the road the ‘broken’ mound is ascribed to outbuildings on account of projecting stones but it is obvious that the passage is within the tower’s circuit – at The Howe we found a souterrain which had been struck through the tomb at the centre of the broch so the road might have demolished a northerly continuance (an odd coincidence otherwise).
Visited 27.3.2010 after a trip to the excellent Crug Hywel camp. Getting up here from the fort is a long climb up to a height of 701 metres. It’s a well worn path, but pretty boggy in places – the peat doesn’t drain very well. There are also numerous springs and a couple of small streams to pass, so in wet weather this is probably very wet indeed. Turning around, there is a great view of the flat top of the fort, now dropping away below.
My visit coincided with that of a group of lunatics running up here as part of a three peaks challenge, so the summit itself was also home to a couple of tents and some friendly marshalls. There are two large summit cairns, both have been robbed but both are still impressive, and the northern one is a visible landmark from the neighbouring Pen Allt-mawr, as well as from Mynydd Llangorse to the north-west.
Not somewhere to come in poor visibility, this is an area of open moorland so make sure you’re properly dressed for changeable weather. That said, on a nice day the views are tremendous and the walk further north to Pen Allt-mawr is an easy one, over a flat, grassy plateau.
An alternative route from that mentioned by Gladman – visited 27.3.2010 walking up from the pleasant town of Crickhowell, via Great Oak and The Wern. Crickhowell is served by a decent bus service running between Abergavenny and Brecon (and Cardiff).
The approach to the fort is a pretty stiff climb, but as already mentioned is well worth it for the views over the Usk valley, with the Sugar Loaf an easily identifiable landmark to the south-east. The ramparts top a near-vertical rock-band and are themselves topped with the remains of a stone wall/bank (not much earth to create a bank and ditch from after all). Although it boasts a ridiculously large number of walker’s shelters, most of which appear to have been robbed from the rampart, this wall is still visible all the way around the summit of the hill, with an entrance on the east side. A wide ridge links Table Mountain to the shoulder of Pen Cerrig-calch, a flat-topped 700m summit boasting some decent cairns and extensive views.
Literally the culminating monument of the locality, the name of this impressive summit burial cairn apparently translates as ‘cheese cairn’. Hey, old fashioned cheeses tended to be round, but then so do most cairns... I’m not convinced.
Although ‘hollowed out’ to form the obligatory walker’s shelter (rant supressed with much difficulty) this remains one substantial cairn for apparently so obscure and insignificant a mountain-top. I mean, this isn’t even the true summit of Mynydd Llangynidr – which is incidentally crowned by another large cairn, Garn Fawr – this being visible some considerable distance to the approx south. I would suggest its size only really makes sense if viewed as the focal point of the numerous cairns located within Pant Llwyd. Here lies the ‘Big Man’, and don’t you forget it, so to speak.
We sit upon the great stone pile and survey the landscape, a vista not for the faint hearted as mist begins to sweep down Dyffryn Crawnor, first obscuring Tor-y-Foel and then the dominant, snowy summits of the main Beacons massif for the duration. The panorama is one of brutal severity, patches of snow highlighting numerous ‘shake holes’, the silence total, cars labouring up the B4560 to the east mere pin-pricks upon the horizon. I effect a bearing upon the route down and, sure enough, upon taking the obligatory ‘last picture’ we are plunged into a claustrophobic world of clammy, grey vapour. Disorientation is total and it takes a great leap of faith to place complete trust in that little red needle. Shouldn’t it get easier after 20 years upon the hills? Perhaps it’s best that it doesn’t...... I remain in awe of this environment, and I hope I always will.
But such is the entry fee for a couple of hours at such an exquisite spot.
Heading uphill from the Carreg wen Fawr y Rugos stone row (a general south westerly direction) it immediately becomes apparent that there is far more to this mountain than I first thought.....
We stumble across a large, circular, grassy cairn, which bears all the hallmarks of a Bronze Age burial site. Then another, followed by numerous further examples, culminating in a pair defining the final approach to the great summit cairn, Garn Caws. The western of this pair is a very substantial monument indeed, significantly not sited upon the summit of a prominent crag overlooking Dyffryn Crawnor, but upon its ‘inner’ shoulder, this rendering it invisible from the valley below. I would suggest this implies a specific relationship with Garn Caws, and a subservient one at that. [Coflein details of the various monuments within the cemetery are given as a miscellaneous post]
The locality of Pant Llwyd is liberally endowed with ‘shake holes’, those enigmatic circular depressions (I’m sorry, but ‘holes’ simply does not do justice to their exquisite natural symmetry) to be found upon the limestone uplands of South Wales. I must admit that, for all the world, they appear ‘man made’, or even of ‘supernatural’ origin. Could their existence have had a bearing on the location of the cairns? An intriguing thought, but one to ponder later on. For now, Garn Caws calls...
