I skirt the hill below Carregwiber fort, I had tentatively hoped to get a visit in but I’m tiring and quite cold now, so decide to press on. Instead I manage a quick stop at Carregwiber stone, which is a small stone that in many places would be dismissed as a rubbing post, but here we seem to be surrounded on all sides by standing stones so it’s part of a complex. It’s a shapely, tapering stone, set above a slope to give greater prominence and a terrific view of the Radnor mountains. The ambience is rather spoiled by the carcasses of a rusting car, caravan and assorted junk in close proximity, but don’t let that put you off (too much).
This is a strange place, I came down from the hillfort armed with map and compass confident that these two stones were going to be easy to find. Before I'd even found stone one the hill had somehow seperated me from my compass, even retracing my footsteps in the dewy grass failed to reunite us, oh well thought I worse things happen at sea, lets just have a good walk round and try with just a map, which I now held on to with an iron grip.
I found one likely looking stone next to a smaller similar shaped stone inbetween the two was a dead sheep, but this stone was next to a bridleway which my map completely fails to acknowledge, so maybe that stone is either not a menhir or it is and its not on the map, because Coflein says there are three stones up on this wide ridge but mappy says only two.
I carried on walking in ever wider circles 'till I came upon a ruined house with two junked cars, that wasnt on the map either, on the other side of the house I finally found a standing stone a small one indeed but definatly a standing stone.
I packed up quickly and left the place before I too became lost.
Coflein says there are three stones the one by the house is the most obvious, down the bridleway is the other one with deadsheep. But if that isnt it then there is one thats a boulder in a hollow and its almost two metres tall so god knows how I missed that one.
A beautiful and mysterious place.
In "The Ancient Stones of Wales" by Chris Barber and John Godfrey Williams (1989 Blorenge Books), this is given the alternative name the Dragon Stone or Serpent Stone. However, the description given doesn't match the other posts:
"This stone stands about 2.5 feet out of the ground and is 4 feet long and 2 feet wide and is near a roadway leading to a farm. It is a slatey-blue stone with seams of white quartz a few inches thick and should be called the Serpent Stone according to a local farmer interviewed by J.G.W. in March, 1963."
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