Ty Newydd

Also known as:
Llanfaelog and Llanvaelog
Nearest town:
Llangefni (12km ENE)
OS reference:
SH345738
OS sheet:
114
Latitude:
53° 14' 6.13 N
Longitude:
4° 28' 48.12 W

Images

Image of Ty Newydd (Dolmen / Quoit / Cromlech) by thesweetcheat

Lovely old Ministry signs invite the visitor in with an outstretched palm.

Image credit: A. Brookes (28.4.2017)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Jun 6, 2017
Image of Ty Newydd (Dolmen / Quoit / Cromlech) by postman

From here it looks like its balancing solely on the stack of bricks, no wonder there is a crack in the capstone right above the bricks.

Image credit: Chris Bickerton
postman
postman Apr 28, 2015
Image of Ty Newydd (Dolmen / Quoit / Cromlech) by postman

The short posts mark the spot where alien bodies were found during a dig in the summer of 69.

What ?

Image credit: Chris Bickerton
postman
postman Apr 28, 2015
Image of Ty Newydd (Dolmen / Quoit / Cromlech) by postman

They show the extent of the original mound.

Image credit: Chris Bickerton
postman
postman Apr 28, 2015
Image of Ty Newydd (Dolmen / Quoit / Cromlech) by Rhiannon

Prior to the undignified shoring-up. As with the other drawing I’ve posted, you can see extra large stones that don’t seem to be anywhere around any more. The poor long-suffering structure.

From Rev. John Skinner’s ‘Ten Days’ Tour through the Isle of Anglesey’ (1804) – he describes one of the extra stones as 17 feet long and 3 thick.

Rhiannon
Rhiannon Feb 5, 2011
Image of Ty Newydd (Dolmen / Quoit / Cromlech) by Rhiannon

From ‘On the cromlechs extant in the Isle of Anglesey’ by H Longueville Jones, in the Archaeological Journal v3 (1846).

Rhiannon
Rhiannon Feb 5, 2011
Image of Ty Newydd (Dolmen / Quoit / Cromlech) by hamish

You can look at this Dolmen from this angle and not be offended by the brickwork.

Image credit: Mike Murray
hamish
hamish Jun 14, 2006
Image of Ty Newydd (Dolmen / Quoit / Cromlech) by hamish

It would have looked a little better if the bricks had been rendered, maybe not.The concrete markers show the extent of the covering round cairn.

Image credit: Mike Murray
hamish
hamish Jun 14, 2006
Image of Ty Newydd (Dolmen / Quoit / Cromlech) by Moth

From this angle, a beautiful dolmen/quoit/cromlech/thing hiding a GUILTY secret...

Image credit: Tim Clark
Moth
Moth Aug 30, 2003
Image of Ty Newydd (Dolmen / Quoit / Cromlech) by IronMan

Look, no supports!
Viewed from this *exact* location the supports are obscured.

IronMan
IronMan Apr 2, 2002

Articles

In this video we explore Ty Newydd – a neolithic monument in Anglesey, Wales.
We’ve found a variety of descriptions and illustrations dating as far back as 1781, including two explanations for the missing stones. The site was once described as a ‘double cromlech’ but at present the monument consists of a 12ft by 5ft capstone partially held up by brick supports which were added after excavations in the 1930s. In this video we’ll cover the known history of Ty Newydd and how its condition has deteriorated over the years.

CoralJackz
CoralJackz Jan 21, 2025

Ty Newydd

C
CARL Sep 18, 2012

Visited 8.9.12

A CADW prehistoric site – one of many on Anglesey.

Although this site is signposted it is not easy to park but this is a quiet road and we squeezed in on the grass verge.

The Dolmen itself is visible from the road but a short walk (via a stone stile) will bring you up close and personal.
(There is a large stone next to the stile – I wonder if this has anything to do with the Dolmen?)

I noticed around the tomb a series of small concrete stumps.
Are the stumps there to protect the site from farming or to show the original outline of the Dolmen?

The capstone is very large with lichen growing on one side.
As reported it is held up by 3 original standing stones and 2 brick pillars.
The capstone seemed to me to be pointing towards Snowdonia.

There are good views to be had.
This is a good place to visit.

Ty Newydd

Ravenfeather
Ravenfeather Mar 2, 2012

Visited 31st December 2011

Of all my many previous visits to Anglesey I’d never been here before. Despite being only a stones throw from Barclodiad-y-Gawres I’d always found the maze of lanes around Llanfaelog confusing, or maybe I’d been subconsciously avoiding seeing the appalling restoration of the dolmen, now with an OS map in hand there were no excuses so we set off to view the site.

Initial impressions were hopeful, as we parked up in the tiny layby outside Ty Newydd’s field, the shape of the huge capsone hove into view and I thought well that doesn’t look too bad. Indeed from one angle it doesn’t, but as you approach the true horror of the restoration becomes apparent.

Oh dear.

Looking more like a dodgy garage extension than a serious attempt at archaeological restoration the brick pillar ‘supports’ are so inappropriate as to totally ruin the form of the monument, and I desperately try to angle my photos to hide the ugly brickwork.

Well done to the 19th century gaping rustic who lit a bonfire on the capstone cracking it and necessitating this later awful reconstruction. I’m generally in favour of restoring megalithic sites but to be honest this one would have looked better if it had been left in a tumbledown ‘dolmen on a blasted heath’ type state rather than having been used as bricklaying practice for the Ministry of Works. Surely it would now be possible to restore the monument in a more sympathetic way?

If you can overlook the bricks the dolmen is of a good size, the capstone being impressively huge. I was initially perplexed by the small concrete posts which surrounded the structure, before figuring out that they indicated the circumference of the mound which would have once covered the dolmen (at least I think that’s what they’re for, please someone correct me if I’m wrong!) At least from one angle it looks great, like a perfect stone table, perhaps I can dream that one day someone will come along and restore it properly!

Ty Newydd

skins
skins Jan 17, 2008

Visited it in 2005, went across the muddy field too find it hunched in the corner, a strange sorry spectacle, with its huge concrete/brick crutch helping it to basically stay up. Be amazed at its resilience to time and man’s indignity to it. Be astounded at the fact this structure has survived all this. It is for this reason it is always worth a visit.

Ty Newydd

treaclechops
treaclechops Sep 3, 2006

Rain was swirling in the gloaming as we reached Ty Newydd, and I was also disappointed to note the utterly insensitive and ugly restoration work on this previously stunning cromlech. However, I suppose we shouldn’t be ungrateful, as brickwork aside, we still see the structure erect. Best of all, the capstone offers a decidedly nautical feel; seen from below, it looks like the prow of a large ship. I remembered trips to HMS Victory.

Ty Newydd

Jane
Jane Aug 31, 2006

Argh! Another example of hideous restoration! Whichever pricks decided to use pillars of bricks to hold up capstones need their brains concreted. I suppose I should be thankful that the capstone is still up but this beautiful chamber has been very badly damaged by it’s repairs. You can get a view of it where the brick pillars are not visible and that is certainly worth enjoying.

Ty Newydd

stubob
stubob Apr 22, 2003

Oh.......
This can look so right.
So how can it look so wrong at the same time?

Ty Newydd

IronMan
IronMan Apr 2, 2002

The broken capstone of Ty Newydd is held up by two wide stone built supports which ruin the site – however from one angle, they are obscured so it is possible to see the site as it would have been. A series of large stones in the wall next to the monument look quite suspicious.

Ty Newydd

S
Schlager Man Feb 6, 2002

Ty Newydd

Visited just before Easter 2000. It is a wonderful Dolmen...but I do agree with Julian, it’s repair is simply a disaster.

Has or will anything be done it at least visually improve this site, which is in one of those few undistrubed corner’s of Anglesey not yet effected by development & road-works?

Miscellaneous

Ty Newydd
Dolmen / Quoit / Cromlech
Rhiannon
Rhiannon May 12, 2016

In 1844 I visited [Anglesey] and took a drawing of the double cromlech at Llanvaelog, one of the best in the island. One cromlech was erect; the other by its side, thrown down: or rather, I should say that the two constitued the remains of a large chambered mound – perhaps of a cromlech with a passage, as at Bryn Celli in the same island.

The cap-stone of that which was erect measured thirteen feet and a half in length by about five feet in depth and width at the thickest part. The cap of the fallen one was broken in two, but when entire it was not less than fifteen feet long. Fortunately this drawing remains in my portfolio; and it shews the importance of preserving memorials of these early monuments, whenever opportunity offers, made with all possible care; for since then the fallen cromlech has utterly disappeard; and the upright one has been so seriously damaged, that its destruction will now be the work of only a few winters – all through the sheer stupidity of men!

I had occasion to pass by the spot last summer, and on going to renew my acquaintance with this venerable monument, found nothing more remaining than what is represented in the accompanying engraving. An “improving tenant” had come upon the farm. He wanted to repair his walls; and though the native rock cropped out all around, he found it more convenient to blast the fallen stone, the very existence of which was probably unknown to either the landlord or his agent. Hence the fallen one disappeared. The tenant, however, seems to have been in some degree aware of the importance of the erect cromlech; for he cut a kind of trench all round it, and by subsequent ploughings has left it standing on a kind of low mound. Formerly it stood in a grass field, among gorse bushes, with no wall near it, and only some broken embankments with Anglesey hedges on the top.

A few years ago the land came by inheritance, on the death of Lord Dinorben, to the present possessor of Kinmel; and the tenant, desirous of shewing respect to his new landlord, determined to celebrate the occasion with a bonfire. This fire he lighted on the top of the cromlech; and though the stone was five feet thick, the action of the fire and the air split the ponderous mass right through the middle, crossways! Of course this injury was not intended; but it was well known and lamented in the neighbourhood, – for several labouring people mentioned the circumstance to me, and regretted it. As it now stands, the combined action of autumn rains and winter frosts will infallibly enlarge the crack, and will complete the disintegration of the stone. The cap, too, stands now on only three stones, and is in the most imminent danger of coming down altogether, for one of them supports it by an extremely small point, very near one of the sides of the triangle of gravity; and so fine is this point, that it is a wonder how it can withstand the great pressure bearing upon it.

The stones are all of a metamorphic character, containing crystals of quartz, chlorite, and feldspar; almost granitic in texture.

Ten men, with three or four horses and some powerful levers, would repair this cromlech in a single day, and guarantee its preservation for ages. But will they do so?

H.L.J.
Oct. 25, 1863.

An impassioned article called ‘Cromlech at Llanvaelog, Anglesey’ in Archaeologia Cambrensis Jan 1864. Both of HLJ’s sketches are in the Images section above.

Topics

Ty Newydd 2
IronMan
IronMan
Apr 2002

Sites within 20km of Ty Newydd

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