Perthi Duon

Also known as:
Perthiduon and Perthu Duon
Nearest town:
Caernarfon (4km SSE)
OS reference:
SH480668
OS sheets:
114, 115
Latitude:
53° 10' 34.3 N
Longitude:
4° 16' 28.5 W
Added to TMA by

Images

Image of Perthi Duon (Burial Chamber) by thesweetcheat

At this time of the year the tree line blocks much of the view of the mountains across the Menai Straits, but Elidir Fawr and Y Garn in the Glyders can be seen. Yr Wyddfa would be visible over to the right without the trees.

Image credit: A. Brookes (22.9.2016)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Sep 27, 2016
Image of Perthi Duon (Burial Chamber) by thesweetcheat

For all that it’s partially collapsed, I really liked this one with its massive, quartz-studded capstone.

Image credit: A. Brookes (22.9.2016)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Sep 27, 2016
Image of Perthi Duon (Burial Chamber) by postman

Behind the long shed in the centre is where I left the car

Image credit: Chris Bickerton
postman
postman Mar 21, 2011
Image of Perthi Duon (Burial Chamber) by hamish

Sad remnant in the middle of a field.

Image credit: Mike Murray
hamish
hamish Oct 1, 2006

Articles

Perthi Duon

Excavation of Neolithic chambered tomb on Anglesey begins

moss
moss Mar 24, 2014

An archaeological excavation of Ynys Môn’s least known Neolithic chambered tomb – Perthi Duon, west of the village of Brynsiencyn on Anglesey – has begun. The work is being carried out by a team from the Welsh Rock Art Organisation under the direction of Dr George Nash of the University of Bristol and Carol James.

Perthi Duon, considered to be the remains of a portal dolmen, is one of eighteen extant stone chambered monuments that stand within a 1.5 km corridor of the Menai Straits.

The antiquarian Henry Rowlands reports in 1723 that beneath the large capstone were three stones, possibly upright stones or pillars. However, by the beginning of the nineteenth century the monument was in a ruinous state, incorporated into a north-south hedge boundary, itself now removed.

Perthi Duon was visited by the Reverend John Skinner, parish vicar and amateur archaeologist, during his ten day tour of Anglesey in 1802. He sketched the site, then called Maen Llhuyd, and described how its cap stone and three supporters remained on the spot but had “long since been thrown prostate on the ground”.

For the current excavation, two trenches have been dug based on the results of a geophysical survey undertaken by the team in early 2012. The probable orientation of the entrance is east-west, with its concealed chamber at the western end. During Neolithic times, the dead would have probably entered the monument via the small entrance, before being deposited within the chamber, either as a cremation or as disarticulated remains.

The international team of archaeologists have so far uncovered several significant features including areas of compacted-stone cairn that would once have formed a kidney-shaped mound, surrounding the chamber of the monument.

Team director, Dr George Nash said: “This discovery, along with other excavated features clearly show this monument to be a portal dolmen, one of the earliest Neolithic monument types in Wales, dating to around 3,500 BC.

“More importantly, the architecture of Perthi Duon appears to be a blueprint for other portal dolmen monuments within what is termed the Irish Sea Province. We hope, by the end of this excavation to gain a better understanding of the burial and ritual practices that went on at this site, some 5,500 years ago.”

bristol.ac.uk/news/2014/march/anglesey-dig.html

Perthi Duon

blossom
blossom Aug 4, 2011

I liked it here.
Someone was playing an electric guitar somewhere and the music filled the air. I couldn’t tell where it was coming from and wondered as I looked for the burial chamber if I would find some crazy old rock star sitting on it being all rock star-y.

There is an easier route and with places to park. If you follow the Brnsiencyn road signposted for the sea zoo. Take the first proper right hand lane. It’s quite windy and you will see a public footpath on the right. This leads to the chamber but there is no where to park here.
Follow the road along and take the next right hand turn. There is a sharp right hand bend with a driveway opposite. Not far passed this is a big white house on the right. Then a small residential area.
Park up here, there is plenty of room. Next to the big white house, on the right hand side of it, is the other end of the public footpath, although it is unmarked at this end. Walk down passed the white house then through a kissing gate.
Continue a really short distance through this field to a gate on the left.
Then diagonally over this really small field to another kissing gate next to a white farm house.
The chamber is in the field next to the side of the house.

It is really hard to imagine what this would have been like. Maybe it was always very low to the ground?
But it is still charming.

Perthi Duon

postman
postman Mar 21, 2011

The first time I came here I tried to drive as close to it as I could but found myself on a driveway to a house, so i turned around and parked where I think Hamish and Stubob did, theyre right it’s not close and theres no where to park.
So this time I went back to the house and pulled off the drive and onto a grassy area by a big shed. There was nobody around and the kids were still lethargying in the car so I felt a quick look wouldnt hurt. It didnt niether, just me and the big stone in a quiet field. Though it wouldnt hurt to have had a word with the home owner, but at 8am on a sunday morning would you ?
The capstone is huge and has a good view to some Snowdonian pass Llamberis or further west I couldnt tell, whether it was ever raised above the ground I couldnt tell that either, perhaps its a natural place utilised by the ancient people here like Henblas.

Perthi Duon

hamish
hamish Oct 1, 2006

A nice walk through the field from the road,four fields to be exact.Easy to miss so keep an eye to the left.This one is a little sad, not a lot left to let us see what the ancestors saw.

Perthi Duon

stubob
stubob Apr 21, 2003

A bit tricky to find even though it’s in Brynsiencyn itself and it ain’t that bigga place it has to be said.
Although the chambers ruined now, the capstone is still impressive and rests on two stones, I wouldn’t know if the stones have fallen or were just squat anyway.

Miscellaneous

Perthi Duon
Burial Chamber
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Sep 28, 2016

The dolmen at PERTHI DUON, in the parish of Llanidan, three-quarters of a mile S.W. by S. of the (New) Church, is first mentioned by Rowlands. He says: “There is a shapely cromlech on the lands of Blochty... now thrown down and lying flat on its supporters”. This was in 1723. From a sketch which he gives we see that it was called “Maen Llwyd”.

[..] In the Arch. Camb. of 1846 a correspondent writes of this monument: “About twenty years ago (1826) brass or copper chisels were found in digging under it, when it fell down... there are still three uprights under it”.

From ‘The Megalithic Remains of Anglesey‘ by E N Baynes, 1911.

Sites within 20km of Perthi Duon

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