Images

Image of Garn Gron (Barrow / Cairn Cemetery) by GLADMAN

Seen descending Garn Fawr to the approx south-west...

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Image of Garn Gron (Barrow / Cairn Cemetery) by GLADMAN

Approaching the mountain from an unidentified ‘stone feature’ just east of Castell Rhyfel – must admit it looked like a fallen menhir to me... Under an hour later I would be on the wrong end of a ferocious kicking from the inclemental Mid Walian weather.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Image of Garn Gron (Barrow / Cairn Cemetery) by GLADMAN

Not the sharpest of images... but, hand held in lashing rain... it was the best I could do in the circumstances.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Image of Garn Gron (Barrow / Cairn Cemetery) by GLADMAN

I reckoned the western cairn incorporated the remains of a cist... it seems Coflein agree.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Image of Garn Gron (Barrow / Cairn Cemetery) by GLADMAN

The western summit cairn engulfed in cloud...

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Image of Garn Gron (Barrow / Cairn Cemetery) by GLADMAN

Looking approx west toward the, er, western summit cairn. That one is smaller.... but perfectly formed.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Image of Garn Gron (Barrow / Cairn Cemetery) by GLADMAN

Looking approx SW toward Y Garn – to the right of the (apparently un-named?) upland lake. For me Y Garn possesses the most overwhelming cairn to be visited upon Carn Gron’s slopes.... hence the name duly allocated by the locals of yore, perhaps?

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Image of Garn Gron (Barrow / Cairn Cemetery) by GLADMAN

Summit monument.... with 25L rucksack for scale....

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Image of Garn Gron (Barrow / Cairn Cemetery) by GLADMAN

Summit cairn, with the better preserved western cairn seen to far right. Nevertheless both possesses probable remains of cists.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Image of Garn Gron (Barrow / Cairn Cemetery) by GLADMAN

The Afon Fflur, encountered just west of Carn Fflur’s western burial cairn, rises upon Garn Gron (seen skyline). Was the river the salient feature of this Bronze Age landscape? Such life-affirming wonder.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Image of Garn Gron (Barrow / Cairn Cemetery) by GLADMAN

The western cairn looms large in this suddenly claustrophobic upland world....

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Image of Garn Gron (Barrow / Cairn Cemetery) by GLADMAN

The summit’s OS triangulation pillar stands between the main cairn and its offspring.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Image of Garn Gron (Barrow / Cairn Cemetery) by GLADMAN

A not-insignificant volume of stone appears to have been taken from the cairn at some point to erect the modern cairn beyond.... I wasn’t aware at the time that Coflein reckons the latter sits upon an ancient footprint.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Image of Garn Gron (Barrow / Cairn Cemetery) by GLADMAN

The main summit cairn is a substantial, sprawling monument....

Image credit: Robert Gladstone

Articles

Garn Gron

A low cloudbase precludes further exploration of the uplands of Y Elenydd prompting an onward drive through Cwm Ystwyth, a beguiling valley of extremes... part sublime natural beauty, part industrial wasteland; a landscape microcosm arguably analogous to Wales itself. But what to do next? Heading south at Pont rhyd-y-groes I eventually settle upon one of a myriad possible options, an ascent of Carn Gron, near Tregaron, in order to investigate Gwys-yr-Ychen-Bannog, an intriguing linear feature (stone row?.... er, actually, no) depicted upon the map, not to mention several cairns. Oh, and just for the hell of it, too.

Orientating myself at Tregaron – after managing to avoid some psychopathic old bint trying to force me off the road, face contorted with unfathomable rage – I drive north on the B4343 and, taking the first turning on the right, incidentally pass below the Sunnyhill Camp.... some other day, perhaps? The road forks to the right and, passing Penffordd, arrives at the terminus where I manage to park in an appropriate manner. It’d be rude not to. A  grassy track leads off to the south-east above the northern bank of the Groes Fawr. There are a number of cairns marked on the map in the river’s locale; however my initial focus is Castell Rhyfel, an Iron Age hillfort dominating the valley from upon the ridge to my left. Although the enclosure’s ramparts aren’t that well defined – were they ever? – the siting, from an aesthetic perspective at least, is exquisite, according magnificent views only enhanced by an utterly unexpected interlude of fine weather.

Carn Gron rises across the Groes Fechan to right of Y Garn, the latter, as the name suggests, also bearing an ancient cairn. I decide to go for it, the benign conditions promising a fine summit hang, duly circling the headwall of the cwm to the north. As I do so I encounter a suspiciously ‘fallen standing stone-like’ prostrate erratic at (very) approx SN735599. It certainly does look out of place, but then again I guess most erratics, by definition, do. My chosen route necessitates losing height before the final ascent... not ideal, but allowing the replenishing of the water bottle (from the Groes Fechan) as compensation. I arrive at the 1,774ft summit in surprisingly short order (for me) to discover that Carn Gron’s cairns are the real deal.

The OS trig pillar stands between two monuments.... a large, sprawling cairn at the actual summit of the peak... and a smaller, modern construct to the north-east, the latter almost certainly sourced from a significant ‘bite’ missing from the former. Despite the significant damage (including obligatory ‘muppet shelter’), the summit cairn remains a substantial stone pile, morever with what appear to be remnants of central cist elements in situ. As for the smaller.... it appears Coflein reckon the modern erection stands upon an ancient base (steady now). Which is nice. And more than can be said about the weather, the warm sunshine of half an hour previously progressively – and irrecoverably – superseded by a vicious front sweeping in from the north-west.

I head west to, appropriately enough, the western cairn and determine that this is by far the finest of the trio. Slightly smaller than the summit monument it is, to my eyes at least, much better defined. It also features the probable remains of a central cist, highlighting the apparent unfrequented nature of these seemingly obscure hills. In addition, the views are more expansive here although (sadly) I have little time to appreciate them before the full force of the weather front arrives... and I’m engulfed in thick, opaque vapour and assaulted by driving rain in the horizontal plane. In a curious way this claustrophobic ‘world within the clouds’ only serves to emphasise the ethereal vibe I often experience at upland cairns, the senses disorientated, the mind reeling at the relative unfamiliarity of it all, eyes attempting to focus upon something with no background. Oo-eer.

Speaking of focus, I recall the Gwys-yr-Ychen-Bannog and go have a look. Whatever the feature represents, it certainly does not resemble a stone row [it appears, retrospectively, to form a boundary feature of indeterminable age (medieval?), the devil being in the translation]. Never mind, it brought me to Carn Gron. Enough said. I am forever in the ‘furrow of the horned oxen’s’ debt. Anyway, I subsequently descend to Y Garn, courtesy of a compass bearing, this proving to be another fine cairn with the obligatory remnants of cist, finally dropping in on (yet) another beside the Groes Fawr, this ‘un with a more-or-less intact cist. Jeez, what more has the day to offer?

Back at the car I meet the old farmer and his mate, the former stating that he couldn’t care less about the cairns himself.... ‘but at least it isn’t snowing’. Er, yeah. Whatever. With darkness approaching I set off to find somewhere to ‘crash’ for the night.... and thankfully avoid taking things way too literally, courtesy of a front near-side blow-out. Suffice to say it has been some day.

Miscellaneous

Garn Gron
Barrow / Cairn Cemetery

There is a trio of cairns located upon the summit plateau of 1,774ft Carn Gron, a shapely large hill / mini-mountain a little under 4 miles to the approx north-west of Tregaron. According to Coflein:-

Summit Cairn – SN73976106:
“A round cairn, 16.5m in diameter & 1.2m high, set upon the highest point of Garn Gron, having a shelter constructed on the E side, with the NE segment having been cleared to ground level; possible cist elements are exposed at the centre”

Cairn II – SN74006108:
“A modern cairn, 5.0m in diameter & 1.8m high, is set upon the turf-covered base of an apparent earlier cairn, 9.0m in diameter”

Western Cairn – SN73786114:
“A subcircular cairn, 15m N-S by 14m & 1.2m high, set on the W summit of Garn Gron, apparently touched on its NE side by Gwys-yr-Ychen-bannog linear boundary feature; a central disturbance displays possible cist elements”.

[J.Wiles 23.07.04]

Sites within 20km of Garn Gron