Suspicious pile of stones beyond the eastern circle. Are these original orthostats removed or modern additions to the circle subsequently removed? – there are shallow stone holes upon the circle’s circumference...
Image credit: Robert Gladstone
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I think I can fill in some details on these stones, and if you'd been any earlier you would have caught me at it. I have also visited Nant Tarw lately, several times over the last week. On my first visit these stones had been added to the Eastern circle. Some as extra perimeter stones, and some in odd piles inside the circle. Some were covers for crushed tuna tins.
I removed them all, and then the heavens opened and I had a right good cleansing( that's my interpretation anyway)
ps. Are you following me?
Good stuff. Don't want this turning into another Doll Tor as that was a few years back. Thought it odd since the stone holes were so shallow. Unaccountably only been here once before - 2003 - and meant to come back in August, but ended up on Waun Leuci/Cefn Cul. Only tend to come to circles etc in Wales when the weather's iffy, but it was much much better than I recalled, I have to admit.
Kid's playing games I think, camping out in the circle.
I think theres more going on here than 2 circles and a row. That's why I've been spending time here lately. Maybe I'll get to make some sense of it one day.
I came Sunday before last and agree with the 'more going on bit'. Noticed another couple of stones - possibly in line - pointing up hill south of the circles.. add the cairn to that and it's like a mini-Dartmoor complex.
Speaking of which it would be interesting to know what thoughts you had concerning another one, Bryn y Gorlan? That one isn't even marked on the map...
I had much the same experience as you with Bryn y Gorlan. I eventually managed to find the circle, or rather the few stones that hadn't been swallowed by the grass. I didn't realise there was anything else there till I got home and looked it up on Coflein. I thought it was just the circle.
The grass there has taken over now. According to a field Inspector from the RCAHMW it was like the Beacons once, and then the sheep farming was scaled down for years, and now it's a grass jungle.
I will go back one day to see the rest of the complex , and maybe try and see some sort of a plan in it all (it's on a lengthening list of megalithic mysteries). For now all I can remember is that , like most South Wales circles (not all) The Black mountain can be seen on the horizon. This is a recurring theme, with some noteable exceptions. It is a bit too regular to be a coincidence.
I think Bryn y Gorlan's yearly visitors could be counted on your fingers alone. The loneliest circle I have ever been to, and I had the distinct impression that it was starved of company, and it really didn't want me to go. Sounds silly, but I felt quite guilty when I left.
With Nant Tarw, there is another recumbent stone at the far end of the valley, to the East. It's on top of a low hill, by the source of the Nant Tarw,at the base of Foel Darw hill . It's not listed as a fallen menhir or anything, but I don't think there's much doubt. It could be one of triplets with the big one in the row and the recumbent by the Western circle. All three are much the same size. All three are old red sandstone conglomerate. All three are intervisible. And all three are in line.
Curiously, there are 2 old red sandstone recumbents in the Eastern circle too. One in the reeds, just outside the circle perimeter, at the south east of the circle, and one in the circle perimeter in the south west. These 2 are also in line with the stone on the hill. The recumbent in the circle ,the only one of these recumbents that is contained in either circle, has a much cleaner and barer appearance. It doesn't have the heavy and dark litchen of the others, very noticeable once it's seen, which I find really interesting. Why should being in the circle influence the litchen?
The other stones in the complex are a different type of sandstone.
If you would like an even bigger complex, I have added some pics and fieldnotes to Blaen Uchaf. Possible processional route?! I hadn't read these comments above before either, so now I'm getting seriously perplexed.