Pen Craig y Pistyll (Ceulanamaesmawr)

Nearest town:
Aberystwyth (14km WSW)
OS reference:
SN71548650
OS sheet:
135
Latitude:
52° 27' 39.28 N
Longitude:
3° 53' 27.48 W
Added to TMA by

Images

Image of Pen Craig y Pistyll (Ceulanamaesmawr) (Round Cairn) by GLADMAN

Pen Pumlumon-Fawr rises top right... every top in frame possesses at least one substantial cairn... quite exceptional.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Aug 5, 2022
Image of Pen Craig y Pistyll (Ceulanamaesmawr) (Round Cairn) by GLADMAN

Looking across Llyn Craig-y-Pistyll to Disgwylfa Fawr... the enigmatic ‘Watching Place’, where wooden ‘dug-out’ canoes were interred as grave goods. Pumlumon really is upon another level altogether...

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Aug 5, 2022
Image of Pen Craig y Pistyll (Ceulanamaesmawr) (Round Cairn) by GLADMAN

Towards Cardigan Bay, with Y Tarenau looming top right.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Aug 5, 2022
Image of Pen Craig y Pistyll (Ceulanamaesmawr) (Round Cairn) by GLADMAN

Beautiful location... with a neighbour just across the bwlch. Couldn’t really ask for more.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Aug 5, 2022
Image of Pen Craig y Pistyll (Ceulanamaesmawr) (Round Cairn) by GLADMAN

Nice footprint on this......

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Aug 5, 2022
Image of Pen Craig y Pistyll (Ceulanamaesmawr) (Round Cairn) by GLADMAN

Curiously, neither Coflien nor CADW mention the large prostrate stone. So what is that all about?

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Aug 5, 2022
Image of Pen Craig y Pistyll (Ceulanamaesmawr) (Round Cairn) by GLADMAN

As usual, a ‘marker cairn’ surmounts the extensive fabric of the cairn. There is a central depression, but otherwise, the cairn appears pretty much intact?

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Aug 5, 2022
Image of Pen Craig y Pistyll (Ceulanamaesmawr) (Round Cairn) by GLADMAN

The site is approx centre of image, looking from Cripiau Bwlch-glas. Bwlch yr Adwy is far left.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Aug 5, 2022

Articles

Just when a chap believed Pumlumon had revealed all its prehistoric secrets...

GLADMAN
GLADMAN Aug 4, 2022

Miscellaneous

Pen Craig y Pistyll (Ceulanamaesmawr)
Round Cairn
GLADMAN
GLADMAN May 27, 2023

This large Bronze Age funerary monument forms yet another piece of the (very) extensive Pumlumon jigsaw, set upon a 1,493 feet high hilltop overlooking Llyn Craig-y-pistyll, some 4.5 miles west(ish) of Pen Pumlumon-Fawr.

Now The Citizen Cairn had thought he’d seen all Pumlumon has to offer over the years... so it just goes to show that: 1) experience doesn’t necessarily stop one from acting like a muppet... thinking you know it all, right?; 2) the plethora of Pumlumon’s prehistoric riches would appear to know no bounds; 3) just because nothing is shown upon the map... doesn’t necessarily mean there is nothing more to find.

But of course, tangible prehistoric reminders such Pen Craig y Pistyll’s cairn are but an excuse – albeit an immensely rewarding one for their own sake – to get out and about upon unfamiliar (or, indeed, familiar) hills and take in that wild vibe. Here, as it happens, the initial impression upon arrival at the start of the walk is not exactly salubrious: the stark, ruined miner’s barracks of the former Bwlchglas Lead Mine most certainly NOT a sight for sore eyes. Persevere, however, since a short, steep climb sees the traveller soon arrive at a well-made byway heading for Bwlch yr Adwy. These tracks are not my thing, however, so an ascent of the hillside to the immediate south beckons... and thus Pen Craig y Pistyll.

It would be rude not to make the continuation across the bwlch to view another round barrow at SN71978691 before sweeping westward back to the start. Just saying. Now being an English Gentleman – and having no wish to consciously offend – that is exactly what I did

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