The SW quadrant, looking towards twin-summited Y Lliwedd and the elegant north-eastern profile of Crib Goch.
Image credit: A. Brookes/C. Bickerton (17.11.2012)
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Glad you went. Interesting to see the relationship between Crib Goch and the 'ring' (better term, that). The sightline is pretty striking. Furthermore, I noted that the natural outcrop in line upon Glyder Fawr's shoulder looked a bit 'Gorsedd'-like but couldn't gauge the correlation between that, the 'ring' and the Crib due to the low cloud for my visit.
As you say there can be no doubt the ring was erected by people. It also occupies a ridiculous place for a 'folly', so ludicrous as for that option to be credibly discounted, I would suggest? Which leaves the question of what practical purpose did it serve, given its dimensions and the fagility of the uprights? I mentioned a 'cockpit' before. But the ground is so waterlogged.... and has no doubt been so to varying degrees for millennia due to run-off... that surely not? You would need to use water fowl! Neo-pagans might have chosen such a site for its obscurity, but of course there are far more obscure locations roundabouts than just below a couple of Snowdonia's 3000-ers, not that far from Thomas Firbank's famous old farm. Oh, come on! There is, of course, another possibility........
It may seem incredible for a prehistoric site to be 'missing' for so long... but did you two not walk right by as well as I? All three of us eyes peeled and wandering in an area no walker would have any cause to be in? In fact would actively avoid. So perhaps this is not as unlikely as it may have first appeared? Frauds must be highlighted.... however pending evidence to the contrary I must say I'm reasonably convinced this is what it says on the tin.
I agree with all of that. Even the lack of circularity is hardly unique. The most compelling argument for me is that there is so little in the way of other possible explanations for what it could be.
Personally, I think the water levels are telling, the OS 1/25000 shows it in a little lake, but various other editions do not. Until the 2000s, the largest scale that OS surveyed mountains and moorlands at was 1/10000, rather than 1/2500 (rural) and 1/1250 (urban) survey scales used throughout the less undeveloped parts of the country. This reflected that (a) there was little demand for a larger scale in the these areas, as no-one was building/planning/defining extents of ownership for farming reasons etc and (b) the relative inaccessibility for OS surveyors. In fact, quite a lot of the National Grid (metric) system that replaced the old "County Series" (imperial) mapping was done without new surveys or by using aerial surveying techniques only. This isn't to denigrate the incredible efforts of the OS, who carried out an astonishingly detailed survey that is still the envy of pretty much the rest of the world. But it acknowledges the reality that in a place like this, there isn't much to actually survey as such, especially for the cost of hoiking equipment across a bog, etc.
I also agree with you, that the most likely explanation is that it's a tiny site built from tiny stones in the middle of a largely unsurveyed wilderness, away from any paths and very waterlogged (if not sometimes actually under water). It's only because RCAHMW are carrying out the detailed upland surveys of recent years that we are getting this stuff noted now.
I can't hand-on-heart say it's definitely a prehistoric circle, but it seems to me more likely than not, in the absence of a better explanation at the present time.