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Round Barrow(s)
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Briefly stopping off for a shufty following a full day spent checking out Craig Twrch's numerous cairns, I have to admit to being somewhat baffled here. The archaeologists at RCAHMW reckon the site represents the remains of a Roman signal station, sitting as it does beside Sarn Helen..... a Roman Road. However, for balance, this view has to be contrasted with CADW's official scheduling (CD156) which states the following:
"The monument comprises the remains of a circular earthwork, which probably dates to the Bronze Age (c. 2300 - 800 BC). It stands on a prominent saddle in the hills with a wide panorama to the south and north-west, alongside Sarn Helen, the preserved line of the Roman road. It consists of an inner mound of c.14m diameter, standing up to 1.4m high, the central area of which is dished, lying c. 0.3m below its rim, except in the centre where an area has been dug away and later fires built, and on the southern side where a massive boulder c.3.6m long resting on its long side lies in a deep hollow. The inner mound is surrounded by a ditch c.1m wide and c.0.5m deep with traces of a slight counterscarp bank outside it. Opposite the boulder the ditch is discontinuous for a distance of c.3.5m, giving the impression of a causeway which has five smaller boulders on its western side. The origin of the site seems to be as prehistoric funerary monument consisting of features of a round barrow and recumbent stone circle. The large boulder may have originally been upright. It has also been suggested that the site was re-used as a Roman signal station."
Now, while I've no wish (no, really) to be thought of as biased against the bloody Romans (and, let's face it... of all the things they did for us, building signal stations probably wasn't the most inspiring), perhaps the 'recycling angle' might fit best here, bearing in mind the wealth of 'metaphysical' lore associated with Carreg y Bwci... aka 'The Goblin's Stone'? The name presumably a reference to the large recumbent 'boulder' which sits upon/within the mound, it's hard to imagine the perfunctory actions of legionnaires who probably died of boredom - or hypothermia - two millennia or so ago putting the wind up a passing traveller to the same degree as lingering folk memories of burial rights/rituals made manifest in the apparent antics of a mythical Welsh supernatural creature? Or is it just me?
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Posted by GLADMAN
26th July 2022ce
Edited 28th July 2022ce
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