Ffridd Camen, Y Berwyn

Nearest town:
Bala (13km W)
OS reference:
SJ04743447
OS sheet:
125
Latitude:
52° 53' 55.9 N
Longitude:
3° 24' 58.76 W
Added to TMA by

Images

Image of Ffridd Camen, Y Berwyn (Ring Cairn) by thesweetcheat

The apparent mound from the north. The slabs in the other pictures are in the reedy grass. Looking towards Moel Sych.

Image credit: A. Brookes (13.9.2023)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Dec 21, 2024
Image of Ffridd Camen, Y Berwyn (Ring Cairn) by thesweetcheat

The smaller slab, which does appear to be set on edge, with a chunk of quartz next to it.

Image credit: A. Brookes (13.9.2023)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Dec 21, 2024
Image of Ffridd Camen, Y Berwyn (Ring Cairn) by thesweetcheat

Looking southwest towards Cefn Penagored, with Foel Cwm Sian Lwyd rising behind.

Image credit: A. Brookes (13.9.2023)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Dec 21, 2024
Image of Ffridd Camen, Y Berwyn (Ring Cairn) by thesweetcheat

From the path to the west, with the two small stones I first noticed in the foreground. The main Berwynau ridge rises behind.

Image credit: A. Brookes (13.9.2023)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Dec 21, 2024
Image of Ffridd Camen, Y Berwyn (Ring Cairn) by thesweetcheat

Looking northwest, with the largest stone I saw in the centre.

Image credit: A. Brookes (13.9.2023)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Dec 21, 2024
Image of Ffridd Camen, Y Berwyn (Ring Cairn) by GLADMAN

Worth stopping by....... if you’re into this sort of thing :-)

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Nov 6, 2019
Image of Ffridd Camen, Y Berwyn (Ring Cairn) by GLADMAN

Looking across the ring cairn (probable, I reckon) to the main ridge of Y Berwyn ascended a few years back now.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Nov 6, 2019
Image of Ffridd Camen, Y Berwyn (Ring Cairn) by GLADMAN

What seemed to me probable remains of cist elements...

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Nov 6, 2019
Image of Ffridd Camen, Y Berwyn (Ring Cairn) by GLADMAN

It would be easy enough to walk right by this ring cairn oblivious... however pay attention now – tarry a while and all will be revealed within the undergrowth.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Nov 6, 2019

Articles

Ffridd Camen, Y Berwyn

thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Dec 21, 2024

Maybe visited 13 September 2023.

This is an elusive one. Chris and I tried to find it in gloomy wintry light back in 2018, but eventually drew a blank after walking round in circles. Gladman came the following year and was successful, finding an edge set slab that appears to mark the cist, tucked away in reedy grasses.

CADW and CPAT have had differing experiences of this monument. In 1994, CADW described it as:

“Ring cairn 12m diameter with central cist. Rough stoney encircling bank with upright stones forms outer kerb. Central cist composed of 2 uprights (1 side and 1 end slab)”

5 years later, CPAT said this about it:

“Ring cairn consists of low bank c.0.4m high and 1.5m wide, with small stone visible through vegetation. Fairly well preserved except on W side. Along the inner edge of the bank there are occasional edge-set stones forming a kerb – not on outer edge as Cadw description suggests. One edge-set stone on NE of centre has been interpreted as a possible cist.”

So does the cist have one stone or two? An inner bank or an outer?

Anyway, with all this behind me, and nearing the end of a joyous 13 and a half mile ascent of the highest peaks of Berwyn range from Llandrillo, I decide to try again. The path from Cwm Tywll cairns to the south squelches across boggy slopes; my feet sink into deep holes that are sometimes muddy and sometimes watery, but always wet. I’m really tiring now, and I recall the imminent crossing of Clochnant as a challenge the last time I was here with Chris.

Reaching the general area of this monument, I notice a pair of small stones to the right of the path, forming an edge to a roughly circular area of higher ground, with reedy grasses in its centre. Confident I’ve found the monument this time, I leave the path and poke about. I find a large slab, leaning over so as to be more vertical than upright. Just to the north of it is another smaller slab, this one definitely edge-set but partly buried and with a chunk of quartz next to it. Taking a step back, from the north these stones do appear to be incorporated in a clear mound. Happy that this is ‘it’, I take some photos and then plod onwards north. The crossing of Clochnant is difficult as feared, slippery mud where livestock have used the crossing. I make an absolute meal of it as I usually do, aching feet and legs now running out of steam as I near the end of the walk.

Looking back now however, what I hadn’t found was the clear edge-set slab in Gladman’s photos. The angle to the surrounding hills is similar, but not perhaps identical. I wonder if what I found wasn’t actually the right monument after all, although I remain convinced that it was ‘something’. There’s a lot of archaeology in this valley, so I’m ready to believe that there may be two separate monuments close together here. I reckon someone else needs to go and have a look now.

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