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The grass is always greener on the other side.
| The first time I came up here I was only looking for the standing stone, but have since found out about another stone and a ring cairn and two kerb cairns all with in site of that first standing stone. It was time for Eglwyseg part two. After being blown away by the big clifftop barrow and astounding views over to the hillfort/castle of Dinas Bran, I followed the path up to the hilltop, then veered off towards the kerbies, ring and standing stones, there were no fences to climb and no gates to open the weather was good and the views fantastic. No worries I first spotted the nearly horizontal standing stone first, the end of the stone still in the ground has packing stones round it, should it be upright it would be an impressive bulky stone about six feet high. From here I could see the first kerb cairn and then as I approached the further one by ten metres came into view. Niether cairn has all its kerb stones left one of them has only five stones forming a semi circle with one stone bigger than the others, the other kerby has eight stones with again one stone bigger than the others. The view over to World's End and Moel y Gamelin past that also takes in some of the cliffs that the area is renound for. From the kerbies I could see the ring cairn just above the grass and as I walked over to it I got giggly and a bit giddy, what had started off as a single standing stone was now turning into whole megalithic complex. The grass in the field is neatly trimmed by a thin hoard of sheep making walking a pleasure, whereas on the other side of the fence an impenatrable waist high sea of heather rather puts a crimp to your stride The ringer is next to a big hole and a fenced off area, all the stones seem to be there and making a perfect stone circle of themselves, I climbed up onto the corner post in the fence to get a more elavated photgraph, when just then I heard an engine behind me, I turned to look and at first glance it looked like a bus, a quick double take revealed it to be a big farmers quad-bike, I sharpishly dismounted and innocently carried on inspecting the stones, it was farmers wife and she had driven whilst scowling straight over to me. "What are you doing here?" she impatiently asked, "Erm, I'm just taking a look at the stones" I replied sheepishly. "What for ?" she asks incredulously "Because i'm interested in ancient places" I offered. I slowly and unthreateningly ambled over to her, just be calm and dont forget to play the innocent. "This is private property, your not allowed to be here" she says " your supposed to get permission from the CCW (Like DEFRA) and us." I tried in vain to tell her that I just came down off the path to take a quick look at the stones, that there were no fences or gates between the path and the stones and no signs saying go away. Then with no further a do she threw me off her land, and told me not to publish any photos of the stones taken whilst on her land and not to tell anyone the stones whereabouts. So I withdrew, asking if it was ok to take pictures from the other side of the fence, " yes thats ok, but over there is a site of special scientific interest" She really didnt want me anywhere near her land, she never left site of me all the time I was there, and so in deference to the old biddy I haven't put up any pictures taken on her land, but managed just about to get some from the goodboy side of the fence. If I hadnt had the time to give the place a good look over before she came I would have been on a real downer, but as it is I felt great at rediscovering a secret megalithic complex, and I really think as many people as possible should go and look for themselves (preferably on the same day) though its up to you which side of the fence your on. After that I went on a long walk to the Eglwyseg mountain cairns supposedly three but just one obvious, then it was back down to the clifftops and a phenomenal walk back to the car, these cliffs, terraces, gorges and hardy trees growing in impossible places is fast becoming a favorite haunt of mine. Two more large impressive barrows and its home time, but they really were taking a very back seat to the Eglwyseg complex. God bless her irrational heart (the farmers wife that is) |
Posted by postman12th May 2010ce Edited 14th March 2011ce
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Comments (3) |
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| Great read Postie and what a find, glad you only got 'blown away' in the metaphorical sense. It is honourable of you not to publish photographs as the farm owner had very strong feelings about it. I wonder what that was all about and why the 'forbidden site' has SSI status. |
Posted by tjj12th May 2010ce |
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Only the land outside of her field was an SSSI, by that I presumed she meant the whole hillside, seeing as its completely covered in heather I cant really see much science involved. Ive got loads of better pics but she said she could be fined 2000 quid if "they" find out she let me loose on her land, in which case she would be contacting her solictors. The last time a welsh farmer caught me snooping around he gave me a lift on the back of his land rover over to the cairn I was having trouble locating. For every good'un there seems to be two bad'uns. But we'll keep on at 'em, perhaps kinder scout style. |
Posted by postman 13th May 2010ce |
| Oh yes, all for a mass visit to her "secret" site. Well done for your restraint however. |
Posted by thesweetcheat14th May 2010ce |
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