Beddyrafanc

Also known as:
Bedd yr Afanc and Crug yr Afanc
Nearest town:
Cardigan (14km NNE)
OS reference:
SN108345
OS sheet:
145
Latitude:
51° 58' 34.38 N
Longitude:
4° 45' 18.18 W
Added to TMA by

Images

Image of Beddyrafanc (Burial Chamber) by MerryWizard77

Went here with my friend Gavin and the dog, a beautiful location where you have to walk across the moors. I was surprised to find the tiny sundews, carnivorous plants which add a splash of red to the boggy areas. We call it the grave of the water monster as it has multiple folkloric explanations. One thing for certain is it’s a pleasant spot and worth a visit.

Image credit: Ben Lovegrove
MerryWizard77
MerryWizard77 Oct 13, 2024
Image of Beddyrafanc (Burial Chamber) by GLADMAN

The orthostats are low.... but copious. Note the ‘mystic wand’ offering.... not ours.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Oct 1, 2014
Image of Beddyrafanc (Burial Chamber) by GLADMAN

The Mam C looks rather pleased to be here... as well she should.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Oct 1, 2014
Image of Beddyrafanc (Burial Chamber) by Kammer

Taken 9th July 2005: Looking directly down the gallery from the eastern end.

Image credit: Simon Marshall
Kammer
Kammer Jul 18, 2005
Image of Beddyrafanc (Burial Chamber) by Kammer

Taken 9th July 2005: Viewed (approximately) from the north east.

Image credit: Simon Marshall
Kammer
Kammer Jul 18, 2005
Image of Beddyrafanc (Burial Chamber) by Kammer

Taken 9th July 2005: Viewed approximately speaking from the south east.

Image credit: Simon Marshall
Kammer
Kammer Jul 18, 2005
Image of Beddyrafanc (Burial Chamber) by Kammer

This map is intended to make it a bit easier for anyone who wants to visit Bedd yr Afanc. I’d recommend you do this walk in good dry weather, using my map in conjunction with an Ordnance Survey map (or Multimap printout).

Key
Blue = Stream
Thick black = B Road
Grey = Unclassified road or track
Thin black = Stock fence
Thin red = Route to Bedd yr Afanc from road
Green blob = Parking space
Pink blob = Bedd yr Afanc
Orange blobs = Buildings
The green dot in the village of Brynberian is the safest place to park (by my reckoning SN10403504). There’s a small building set off the road just to the north of the bridge, which looked to me like a telephone exchange. In front of this is space to park without blocking the gate.

From here you have to walk up the B4329 for about 700 metres, first heading east, and then north east. This is the worst part of the walk, and also the most dangerous because of the traffic.

What you’re looking for is a footpath on your right, with a wooden footpath sign (partially obscured by the trees during summer). I’ve stuck a photo of this sign as an inset on the map (bottom right).

Follow the footpath approximately south east. At first it’s made up of two concrete strips (marked on the map at this point in grey), because it serves as someone’s driveway. After a bit you’ll come to a point where a path heads off to your right (you’ll know you’re in the right place if opposite the path is a gate made of corrugated iron).

This path is also a track, but unmade and very overgrown. If you see horse hoof prints, you’re probably in the right place. Also look out for the rusty farm machinery on your right (custodians of the countryside my arse!).

Eventually you’ll come to a rusty old gate (see inset photo bottom left) with an unusual latch (SN1113935165 according to my GPS). On the other side of this is the Common Land. Go through the gate and follow the fence that is now on your right-hand side.

With the fence on your right, keep going. Eventually you find yourself on the edge of the marshland. The fence turns sharply south west (at SN1115734719 according to the trusty GPS). Keep following it, keeping it to your right.

After a while the fence veers off to the north (this is at SN1092634692). At this point stop! You’re about to leave the comfort of fence hugging.

Out in the bog, approximately in line with the fence you have been travelling down is Bedd yr Afanc. If you’re lucky you’ll be able to see it from this point, but don’t be surprised if you end up saying, “I think I can see it, but I’m not sure”.

There is a slight path heading into the open marshland, and it goes in approximately the right direction. This path is relatively dry, so start by following it, looking ahead and slightly to the right. Hopefully you will reach a point where you can see Bedd yr Afanc. If you have a GPS you’re heading for SN1080434608.

Ta da!

(Small isn’t it).

Image credit: Simon Marshall
Kammer
Kammer Jul 10, 2005

Articles

The archaeology and legends of Bedd-yr-Afanc

Generally referred to as unusual, rare or unique to Wales... it seems there may be more monuments like Bedd Yr Afanc, simply hiding in plain sight on the hillside.

Join us for stunning views captured by drone, tips on how to get there, summary of excavations, classifications and possible connections to other local sites... and plenty of folklore, with two versions of a traditional tale told hundreds of years apart.

CoralJackz
CoralJackz Dec 6, 2024

Beddyrafanc

postman
postman Mar 13, 2010

I left the car in Kammers green dot (ironicaly its just yards from a sign for Pentre Ifan, see map) of a parking place but didnt take the advice of taking the footpath, it doesnt go near the cairn anyway, instead I took the more direct route of following the river from the road, up a driveway then skirt round the property and head for higher dryer ground, my more or less hit and miss approach paid good dividends as I spotted the only likely looking stones poking above the tufts of Gorse, so I walked straight up to it dodging the inevitable boggy bits, no problems at all.
I liked this place a lot, the stones arent massive and they arent aligned on anything, but they managed to steal the show, Carreg Sampson can keep it’s stonking great capstone i’m happiest here this morning. The hillside sweeps high and steep to the south with Carns gallore, and all around is open moor thats strangely vibrant in colour.
I’m reminded wistfully of Brittany.

Beddyrafanc

Kammer
Kammer Jul 21, 2005

Visited 9th July 2005: This is not an easy site to find. For directions detailing how to get to Bedd yr Afanc, take a look at my map and notes. We were blessed with glorious sunshine. The heat was almost too much really. I had Emily (less than two weeks old) in sling on my front and Lou was supervising the boys. We trudged our way to the site. It felt a bit like a scene out of Beau Geste.

Bedd yr Afanc is a modest site, especially when compared to it’s nearest neighbour Pentre Ifan. Having seen photos of the site I knew what to expect, but there’s a danger of disappointment if you’re expecting something like a Breton gallery grave.

I wondered about for a while trying to figure out where the capstones could have ended up, and found one large stone a few metres away from the tomb. Assuming that this is a capstone, why would anyone come to this place and shift a stone that large only a few metres?

Bedd yr Afanc is definitely worth a visit if you’re an enthusiast, but is probably not worth the walk if you only have a casual interest in prehistory. The terrain is relatively level, but by no means wheelchair friendly.

Folklore

Beddyrafanc
Burial Chamber
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Nov 6, 2006

Bedd yr Afanc, ‘the Afanc’s Grave, [is] the name of some sort of a tumulus, I am told, on a knoll near the Pembrokeshire stream of the Nevern.

Mr. J. Thomas, of Bancau Bryn Berian close by, has communicated to me certain echoes of a story how an afanc was caught in a pool near the bridge of Bryn Berian, and how it was taken up to be interred in what is now regarded as its grave.

A complete list of the afanc place-names in the Principality might possibly prove instructive. As to the word afanc, what seems to have happened is this: (1) from meaning simply a dwarf it came to be associated with water dwarfs; (2) the meaning being forgotten, the word was applied to any water monster; and (3) where afanc occurs in place-names the Hu story has been introduced to explain it, whether it fitted or not. This I should fancy to be the case with the Bryn Berian barrow, and it would be satisfactory to know whether it contains the remains of an ordinary dwarf.

Peredur’s lake afanc may have been a dwarf; but whether that was so or not, it is remarkable that the weapon which the afanc handled was a ffechwaew or flake-spear, that is, a missile tipped with stone.

Aw just give over, let it be a water monster, that’s much more interesting. The grave is long and the monster is long.

From Rhys’s 1901 ‘Celtic Folklore Welsh and Manx’, online at the Sacred Texts Archive
sacred-texts.com/neu/cfwm/cf207.htm

also see this page for more details (about the Peredur story, for instance):
sacred-texts.com/neu/cfwm/cf201.htm

Folklore

Beddyrafanc
Burial Chamber
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Oct 5, 2006

I always imagined the Afanc as a bit like a watery dragon. But it seems he could talk and wield a spade:

A North Pembrokeshire legend says that in ancient days the Afanc, dwelling on the Precelly slopes somewhere above Brynberian, ravaged the countryside, committing such depredations on the live-stock of the population that a consultation of the wisest folk was held to devise some means of getting rid of him. They decided to slay him by a trick. A deputation was sent to him to ask him to dig a well for the people. This he agreed to do, and forthwith began working furiously. When he had dug to a great depth (“over one hundred yards” said one relater) the people above tipped into the hole he had made a big load of “white stones” {? Alabaster} which they had collected on the mountain-sides, intending to crush him to death. But next morning they found him still digging, and were informed by him that there had been a rather heavy snowstorm on the previous day. Thus they were unable to do away with him; and he continued as before, eventually “dying a natural death”, after which “he was buried on the hill side” between Hafod and Brynberian, “and his tomb {a cairn of stones} may be seen to this day”. In June, 1928 Charles Oldham and I visited this stone circle which is close to the village of Brynberian, well out on the moor.
This story was collected by T.R.Davis (now Schoolmaster of Newport School) and included by him in original Welsh in his prize essay on N. Pembrokeshire Folklore (MS. Maenchlochog, 1906). He heard it from shepherds and cotters in the Precelly district.

Notes on Pembrokeshire Folk-Lore, Superstitions, Dialect Words, etc
Bertram Lloyd
Folklore, Vol. 56, No. 3. (Sep., 1945), pp. 307-320.

Folklore

Beddyrafanc
Burial Chamber
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Jun 21, 2002

Bedd yr Afanc means ‘grave of the water monster’. This area is full of streams, and the water monster used to live in a pool near the bridge over the Brynberian river. The local people didn’t like him for some reason, so he was killed and buried in this mound. The long low oval mound/cairn is a ‘gallery grave’. No capstones survive of the chamber, but you can see a long low passage of ten pairs of ~50cm uprights leading to a small circular chamber made by seven stones. The site nestles below the Preseli Mountains, where the bluestones for Stonehenge originated.

Topics

Bedd yr afanc 2
C
Che Naranda
Aug 2021

Sites within 20km of Beddyrafanc

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