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August 12, 2026
Moel yr Ogof, centre, with Moel Hebog behind. Seen from the northwest on the slopes of Moel Lefn. The coastline of Bae Ceredigion stretches away on the right.
Image credit: A. Brookes (17.9.2024)
Moel Hebog rises centre skyline, crowned with a cairn cemetery. Seen from the rocky summit of Moel Lefn to the northwest.
Image credit: A. Brookes (17.9.2024)
The cairn in the foreground with extended walking pole laid across it to show how small it is. I couldn’t see anything that might be described as a ‘capstone’ as mentioned in the Coflein record, but a cairn of only 1.2m diameter isn’t really big enough for a cist, surely, unless the cist is somewhere nearby? Looking towards the steep slopes of Moel Hebog, with Cnicht and Y Moelwynion beyond to the left.
Image credit: A. Brookes (17.9.2024)
The cairn might be tiny, but the views are epic. Towards Yr Wyddfa.
Image credit: A. Brookes (17.9.2024)
The extremely diminutive cairn in the foreground, with a diameter of just over a metre. It took a bit of wandering about the flat area to the east of the summit (rising behind) to find it!
Image credit: A. Brookes (17.9.2024)
Moel yr Ogof rising over Bwlch Mellionen, from the southeast.
Image credit: A. Brookes (17.9.2024)
Zoom on Moel yr Ogof from the upper slopes of Moel Hebog. The path to the cairn and summit is through a dramatic gap in the sheer cliffs separating the southeastern slopes of the mountain from Bwlch Mellionen.
Image credit: A. Brookes (17.9.2024)
The previous time I came up here with postie, the visibility was reduced to a few yards. This time I was treated to wonderful views in all directions. Looking south-ish, with Aranau on the left skyline and Cader Idris rising beyond Y Rhinogydd just the right of centre. The wall shows where most of the cairn material ended up.
Image credit: A. Brookes (17.9.2024)
On the summit cairn’s western side, the base blends into the natural outcrops. Looking towards Llŷn and Yr Eifl.
Image credit: A. Brookes (17.9.2024)
Moel Hebog summit cairn, September 2024.
Image credit: A. Brookes (17.9.2024)
The remains of the big summit cairn. Sadly it’s been very badly treated, robbed to build a wall and with an OS trig pillar plonked on top, which as Gladman says is distinctly moth-eaten now. Amazing views towards the Llŷn peninsula.
Image credit: A. Brookes (17.9.2024)
Marker cairn nearest to the summit cairn. This one doesn’t have a particularly obvious footprint to suggest an earlier origin. Terrific view of Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) on the left.
Image credit: A. Brookes (17.9.2024)
The concentric rings near the big summit cairn. Looking towards Yr Eifl (to the right of the trig pillar).
Image credit: A. Brookes (17.9.2024)
Another enigmatic ring, this one closer to the big summit cairn, which can be seen behind on the right. Looking out over the curve of Bae Tremadoc.
Image credit: A. Brookes (17.9.2024)
A modern marker cairn surmounts what appears to be a much older base. Looking towards Nantlle Ridge and Moel Eilio, with Ynys Mon hazily visible beyond.
Image credit: A. Brookes (17.9.2024)
The stone ring towards the north-eastern end of the summit ridge. Looking towards the Y Moelwynion.
Image credit: A. Brookes (17.9.2024)
This stone ring is the first non-marker feature I came across. Coflein shows a cairn here, but it’s not clear what this is. It may be a modern setting of robbed stone.
Image credit: A. Brookes (17.9.2024)
August 11, 2026
August 9, 2026
Wow, this site is huge and impressive!!!
Everstorfer Forst Süd 1, also known as Naschendorf 1 or Riesengrab, is considered one of the largest, best-preserved megalithic site and undoubtedly one of the finest in Germany.
The site is oriented roughly north-west to south-east and consists of a rectangular long barrow measuring approximately 40 × 10 metres and a passage grave with a trapezoidal chamber approximately 7.2 m long, 2.4 to 1.7 m wide and 1.6 to 1.4 m high, to which a passage approximately 3.0 m long is attached off-centre to one side. In total, around 50 massive stone blocks make up the enclosure; within the chamber lies an imposing dolmen with four capstones resting on top. According to Sprockhoff’s survey, the structure was apparently completely intact – since then, only a few of the surrounding stones have tilted slightly or been displaced.
This site – together with the tombs in the immediate vicinity (Teufelsbackofen, Everstorfer Forst Süd 3) – reminds me of a similar cluster of megalithic tombs near Wildeshausen in Lower Saxony (Visbeker Bräutigam, Visbeker Braut), particularly in terms of the layout of the sites.
To reach the tomb, walk south from the car park, cross the B105 and continue straight ahead along a forest path. After about 30 metres, turn right and you will reach the site – which you can already see through the trees from a distance – after about 80 metres.
Highly recommended!
Visited June 2026
Taken from the on-site information board:
Passage grave
in a long chamber with large surrounding stones
People have been fascinated by tombs build by large stones – also known as megalithic tombs or giant’s graves – for many generations before us. Many legends are associated with these stone structures. Time and again, the construction of these structures is attributed to giants.
Archaeological research into these structures, however, has revealed that they are tombs used over several generations.
When bodies were placed in the tomb, the skeletal remains of those buried earlier were in some cases carefully moved aside and piled up to form bone deposits.
These communal or collective graves served as the centre of life or as a territorial ‘marker’ for Stone Age settlers. However, they will also have strengthened the sense of belonging as a place of ancestral worship and as a kind of ‘collective memory’.