Images

Image of Ystradfawr (Standing Stone / Menhir) by thesweetcheat

The standing stone. The eastern cairn is just above the bottom of the slope, extreme right.

Image credit: A. Brookes (8.7.2017)
Image of Ystradfawr (Standing Stone / Menhir) by thesweetcheat

The cairn next to the standing stone. The Berwyn mountains can be seen in the far distance.

Image credit: A. Brookes (8.7.2017)
Image of Ystradfawr (Standing Stone / Menhir) by thesweetcheat

The stone and barrow, looking northwest. Cadair Idris is the mountain on the left skyline, the hill immediately in front of it is where the excellent Yr Allor cairn is, with Cerrig Caerau and Lled Croen yr Ych stone circles to the right of that.

Image credit: A. Brookes (8.7.2017)
Image of Ystradfawr (Standing Stone / Menhir) by thesweetcheat

Context for the monuments from the summit of Ffridd yr Ystrad. I managed to walk right past the eastern cairn without seeing it, it was only when I looked back from the hill that I realised but time had run out. The Arans and Berwyns can be seen on the skyline.

Image credit: A. Brookes (8.7.2017)
Image of Ystradfawr (Standing Stone / Menhir) by thesweetcheat

Hill portrait from the northwest, on the way from visiting Yr Allor cairn and the Cerrig Caerau and Lled Croed yr Ych stone circles.

Image credit: A. Brookes (8.7.2017)
Image of Ystradfawr (Standing Stone / Menhir) by postman

Ffrid yr Ystrad cairn, with dented top . The mound and stone are centre left and up

Image credit: Chris Bickerton

Articles

Ystradfawr

Time was short, so I opted for the scenic/anonymous route avoiding two large houses. I abandoned the car in an out of the way place walked ten yards up the lane towards the houses, then quite comically darted off into the undergrowth following the river(Cwm Calch). The high river bank concealed my movements untill it was time to pop up on the farm radar, at which point I walked briskly and nonchalontly around the feild edge untill I reached a zig zag path through the thinning wood to the hilltop.
It all looked so different down by the car, straight forward up to the top then back down, on the hill itself was another matter, I thought I had further to go when suddenly the standing stone was right before me.
In most parts of the country the stone would be termed small or even tiny, they say that in Wales too, it is very small. Just a couple of feet away is a cairn, it too is small, if I didnt know it was there under all that thick green stuff, youd pass them both by with no more than a second glance at the stone maybe.
But...........
Even if all the monuments were twice as big or twice again they would still have taken the back seat to the extreme weather I had endured all morning, the stingy face rain had died down somewhat but the wind was like physical hands pushing me down like a straw man.
From the stone I tip toed through the squelch to a nearby pointy peak of this hill top from there I should have been able to see Cerrig Caerau and Lled Croen yr ych stone circles to the north west,
but the wind is so strong I cant keep my eyes open long enough to focus they tear up in two seconds, I ignore the views and enjoy the feeling of flying and stand at forty five degrees into the wind.
But not for long, then its back down to the other nearby peak but the wind has other ideas it lets me know that I cant go up another hilltop but I can get taken straight to the other Ystradfawr cairn. It’s no more than a grassy circular bump with a dimple in the top, but its relation to the other cairn and its stone can be seen, unlike the other cairn which I dont have time to fool around with, time and the weather have beaten us in the end, only my coat is less waterproofed than I hoped.

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