Waun Mawn Row / Circle

Nearest town:
Fishguard (13km W)
OS reference:
SN084340
OS sheet:
145
Latitude:
51° 58' 15.25 N
Longitude:
4° 47' 22.83 W
Added to TMA by

Images

Image of Waun Mawn Row / Circle (Standing Stones) by thesweetcheat

Towards Foel Feddau and Foel Cwmcerwyn.

Image credit: A. Brookes (26.4.2022)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Apr 13, 2023
Image of Waun Mawn Row / Circle (Standing Stones) by thesweetcheat

Looking east from the western stone. Foel Drygarn rises centre, with Frenni Fawr to the left.

Image credit: A. Brookes (26.4.2022)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Apr 13, 2023
Image of Waun Mawn Row / Circle (Standing Stones) by thesweetcheat

General view of the site on its level plateau, from the northwest.

Image credit: A. Brookes (26.4.2022)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Apr 13, 2023
Image of Waun Mawn Row / Circle (Standing Stones) by postman

Summer solstice sunrise 2021

Image credit: Chris Bickerton
postman
postman Jun 22, 2021
Image of Waun Mawn Row / Circle (Standing Stones) by Kammer

Taken 24th May 2003: The fallen stone at the western end of the row, sitting a short distance away from the other two.

The stone that remains standing can be seen just below the two sunlit mountains in the distance (at a guess these two peaks are Frenni Fawr and Moel Drygarn).

Image credit: Simon Marshall
Kammer
Kammer Jun 3, 2003
Image of Waun Mawn Row / Circle (Standing Stones) by Kammer

Taken 24th May 2003: At the eastern end of the row, this stone is definately an ex-standing stone. You can see the remains of hole where it once stood.

Image credit: Simon Marshall
Kammer
Kammer Jun 3, 2003
Image of Waun Mawn Row / Circle (Standing Stones) by Kammer

Taken 24th May 2003: The middle stone, viewed from the south.

Image credit: Simon Marshall
Kammer
Kammer Jun 3, 2003
Image of Waun Mawn Row / Circle (Standing Stones) by Kammer

Taken 24th May 2003: Of the three stones, the middle stone is the only one that remains standing. Here it is viewed from the east (approximately speaking).

Image credit: Simon Marshall
Kammer
Kammer Jun 3, 2003
Image of Waun Mawn Row / Circle (Standing Stones) by Kammer

Taken 24th May 2003: This is a pretty poor photo, but it’s the only one I have showing the way that the stones are spaced out. It’s taken from the north west (the stones are indicated by the red arrows).

Image credit: Simon Marshall
Kammer
Kammer Jun 3, 2003

Articles

Prof. Mike Parker Pearson @ Waun Mawn

Waun Mawn: a former stone circle near the bluestone quarries for Stonehenge by Prof. Mike Parker Pearson (in English).

In 2017 and 2018 the Stones of Stonehenge Project, led by researchers from University College London and the universities of Southampton, Bournemouth and the Highlands & Islands, carried out excavations at Waun Mawn in North Pembrokeshire to discover if the four monoliths there are all that is left of a prehistoric stone circle. These four monoliths – three of them recumbent and one still standing – form an arc which previous archaeologists have suspected may be remains of a circle. Our excavations discovered a further six empty sockets around the perimeter, revealing that this stone circle was originally 110m in diameter. This makes it one of the largest stone circles in Britain and the same diameter as the ditch around Stonehenge. The team have also been able to establish its age by radiocarbon dating and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) profiling and dating.

Nucleus
Nucleus Nov 7, 2021

Waun Mawn Row / Circle

Kammer
Kammer Jun 3, 2003

Visited 24th May 2003: We made our way up to this site from the Waun Mawn Stone, but over-shot, and ended up approaching from the north west. The views from up there were incredible, even though the weather was changing from erratic to rainy.

Of the three stones that we could identify, only one remains standing in a circular puddle (yes, another deep muddy puddle for William to play near). Both the recumbent stones were clearly standing at some time, with identifiable holes where they once stood. Two of the stones (the ones to the east) are close together and the third stands a way off to the west. There was quite a good feeling to the place, and I reckon it would be extremely pleasant to sit up here on a nice day and enjoy some solitude.

Miscellaneous

Waun Mawn Row / Circle
Standing Stones
Kammer
Kammer Jun 3, 2003

This site is one of those ones that nobody can agree upon. The most interesting explanation is that it’s the remains of a stone circle, but it’s also been interpreted as a stone row, or just some sort of ruined megalithic structure. Here’s what N.P. Figgis says about it in Prehistoric Preseli:

A group of stones, variously considered as a pair with one stone fallen and – least likely – remnants of a circle of which most are fallen. No early reference or place names suggest the presence of a circle; the three stones involved would indicate an enormous diameter. Interpretation open to suggestions!

I agree with Figgis that the circle would be whopping if that’s what it was. Based on what I’ve seen I reckon it’s a stone row.

Link

Waun Mawn Row / Circle
Standing Stones
Nucleus
Nucleus Nov 7, 2021
The original Stonehenge? A dismantled stone circle in the Preseli Hills of west Wales

The discovery of a dismantled stone circle—close to Stonehenge’s bluestone quarries in west Wales—raises the possibility that a 900-year-old legend about Stonehenge being built from an earlier stone circle contains a grain of truth. Radiocarbon and OSL dating of Waun Mawn indicate construction c. 3000 BC, shortly before the initial construction of Stonehenge. The identical diameters of Waun Mawn and the enclosing ditch of Stonehenge, and their orientations on the midsummer solstice sunrise, suggest that at least part of the Waun Mawn circle was brought from west Wales to Salisbury Plain. This interpretation complements recent isotope work that supports a hypothesis of migration of both people and animals from Wales to Stonehenge.

Sites within 20km of Waun Mawn Row / Circle

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