Images

Image of Carn Nant-y-Ffald (Cist) by GLADMAN

Some – such as I – might well say humankind’s monuments are largely irrelevant when viewed in context of the ‘bigger picture’.... the two large cairns upon the summit plateau of Rhiw Afon viewed returning from Banc Cynnydd are utterly dwarfed by the cloudscape. Carn Nant-y-Ffald is extreme bottom left.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Image of Carn Nant-y-Ffald (Cist) by GLADMAN

There’s a surprise in that cairn.... a well preserved cist, no less.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Image of Carn Nant-y-Ffald (Cist) by GLADMAN

Following the ridge (horizon, left) past Gwar y Ty... I happened to chance upon another monument upon Banc Cynnydd not marked by the OS people. There is apparently at least one more which I did not blunder upon. Sadly.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Image of Carn Nant-y-Ffald (Cist) by GLADMAN

Looking approx SE..... Carn Wen can just be discerned beneath the distinctively angular Lan Fawr

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Image of Carn Nant-y-Ffald (Cist) by GLADMAN

Looking roughly east across the cist, highlighting the shelter erected around it. Carn Wen can just be made out centre right background.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Image of Carn Nant-y-Ffald (Cist) by GLADMAN

The ridge to right (Esgair y Llwyn) heads up to Gwar y Ty and Banc Cynnydd, with more cairns.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Image of Carn Nant-y-Ffald (Cist) by GLADMAN

Nice bit of quartzite there. Original? Or perhaps.... someone still gets why these cairns are where they are.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Image of Carn Nant-y-Ffald (Cist) by GLADMAN

Note the still extensive grassed-over body of the cairn.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Image of Carn Nant-y-Ffald (Cist) by GLADMAN

The cist... minus capstone, but hey... pretty rare for an upland cairn.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone

Articles

Carn Nant-y-Ffald

Less than 300 yds – I think – to the approx NW of the shattered Carn Wen stands this beauty near the ‘brook of the fold’. An historic reference to sheep husbandry, perhaps? Carn Nant-y-Ffald is by no means a massive monument, but, for me, possesses an inherent quality that is not immediately apparent during the short approach walk from its dishevelled neighbour. The grassy cairn is well defined and shapely. However there’s more, the centre possessing a well preserved cist – albeit lacking capstone(s) – shielded by a small dry stone sheep shelter. Yeah, that’ll do nicely... well, at least the former, although the shelter is perhaps appropriate, bearing in mind the nomenclature.

The location is archetypal of Y Elenydd, the monument set upon a bare, windswept ridge that, even when basking beneath today’s periodic blue skies, or illuminated by sunbursts, exudes a somewhat primeval, potentially malevolent vibe. Yeah, this is a brutal, unforgiving landscape. In some ways perhaps that is one of its key attributes.... the area representing an ever-shrinking oasis of unpredictable wilderness within a cultural desert of pre-programmed ‘life experiences’. Or something like that. Anyway... by all accounts the modern world seems to have passed Carn Nant-y-ffald by. Consider Coflein’s RCAHMW field report from 1913... when the monument was described as:

“... a grass-covered stone mound.. some stone protruding through the vegetation. Some cairn material has been used to construct a sheep shelter.. enclosing the open central cist, which survives in remarkably good condition...1.3m east to west by 0.6m and..0.4m deep. It is stone-lined and of solid construction, but its covering stone or stones are no longer present. [RCAHMW 1913]”

As I said, very little seems to have changed upon this hill side in the intervening years. Odd, when you consider it. As I sit and ponder... the aforementioned vibe works upon my consciousness and I subsequently decide to have a wander westwards along the ridge (Gwar y Ty), veering south toward Esgair y Llwyn, searching for views. It seems like the only proper thing to do. How was I to know that Banc Cynnydd also possessed a probable Bronze Age cairn not marked on the map? How, indeed? Well, for what it’s worth, it’s where I’d have put one, overlooking the Afon Elan.

Sites within 20km of Carn Nant-y-Ffald