The Modern Antiquarian. Stone Circles, Ancient Sites, Neolithic Monuments, Ancient Monuments, Prehistoric Sites, Megalithic MysteriesThe Modern Antiquarian

Mein Hirion

Standing Stones

Fieldnotes

114 364917
There is combined parking area,picnic benches and children's play area in the village of Llanfechel.
The standing stone at 114 370917 is worth a look at. The field it stands in has a public right of way through it. I would imagine at one time it would have been possible to stand at Mein Hirion and look down across the hill to it, but the view is now obscured by housing, although it is possible to guess at its location as it stands close to an electricity pylon. The CADW guide to Gwynedd and Anglesey says it is on private land with no access, but footpaths are marked on the OS Landranger map.
Park in the parking area, there is a tourist map showing the location of Mein Hirion, but not the standing stone, or nearby burial chamber. Walk through the village and past the church. As you walk up the hill, take a right for the standing stone, take a footpath that runs along the edge of housing, you should in a minute or two reach a field with a large set of wooden steps and footpath marker, the standing stone is in view in the middle of the field (usual for Anglesey, a grey, broad, flat, blade shape)
For Mein Hirion, go back to the 'main' road and continue up the hill through the village and take the next left. A few houses along on your right you will see a house, with adjacent parking, this has a double gate, next to this is a single metal gate, this is the footpath which runs between neighbouring property boundaries.
Follow the footpath into the field and walk down the hill. We visited in August and it was a bog at the bottom of the hill, although stepping stones and planks of wood had been laid, so don't wear your best shoes.
Walk up the next hill and Mein Hirion will be directly ahead at the top.
Lovely site, very close to a field boundary wall, which hems it in on one side, looks complete with just three stones, all tall and slim.
The council(?) have re-built a handsome boundary wall, with stone steps and cutaway where the public right of way crosses it, but the farmer has (recently) strung several lines of barbed wire across it, so don't approach the site from the other direction unless you have bought wire cutters. In this field is a burial chamber, we tried approaching it from the road on the other side, but at the footpath marker before we entered the field an aggressive bull came over to let us know what he thought about us, so we couldn't enter the field.
Posted by elderford
29th September 2002ce

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