You won't find this one without a map, it's a long walk unless your a 4x4 owner. We parked by two barny type farm buildings and trudged off into the misty drizzle. Keep your eye out for two mounds of glacial deposit one of which has a suspicously perfectly placed stone on top, the circle is directly behind them, at the summit of the small hill.
The stones on the eastern side are about 1 to 2 feet tall, and the western stones are barely above the surface, I had to scrape grass off the smallest stone to see it. The sun actually came out for a minute or two and we smiled broadly. Why dont they use bigger stones ? Its an ideal location with an awsome feel to the place, if I were making this circle I'd have bollocked the bloke that brought that tiny stone, but it doesn't matter, we are here and the sun doth shine .
Visited (not) 7th November 2004: Hats off to Treaclechops, I tried paying a visit to Y Capel yesterday and singularly failed to find it. Had both of the boys with me, a 3 wheeler pushchair, only the 6 figure grid reference and failing light. These are my excuses!
Sue, Cheryl, and I walked through a grassy field on top of a small ridge. Either side of us, the mountainsides swept up in a shallow bowl shape. We still couldn't see the circle, so fanned out for better coverage. Just as we were thinking it was a lost cause, one small upright stone about 2.5 feet tall poked up from the lush grass. Nothing else did. Looking down next to the stone, I saw some much smaller, flatter stones half-obscured by the undergrowth. Following them along, and tripping over a couple, I began walking the edge of the circle, as did Sue and Cheryl from different points. After we had traipsed round it a couple of times, we realised we had a circle easily as big as the Rollright Stones – which was very exciting!
I have to say, though, it was the most Homes & Gardens circle I have yet come across; very neat, with similarly shaped stones evenly placed. I almost expected to find a garden gnome sat under a particularly bushy thistle; happily, I didn't. Odious bloody things, garden gnomes.
This circle is beautifully placed, and feels very calming; a sense of security is engendered by the gently sweeping hills either side, and looking down the valley, the most beautiful vista led out to distant mountains on the horizon. It did not escape my attention that two of these mountains looked remarkably like a pair of breasts. Splendid.
Feeling refreshed, we returned to Nicole, and set out for our next choice of megalith, Carreg Hir standing stone. As we did so, the friendly farmer came by again, and I thanked him for his hospitality. I also asked him if knew anything about the circle. "No, we just leave it alone. Don't know anything about the history, really, don't have the time. Glad you liked it though." So I figure it's not a Homes & Garden creation, but something that has been stewarded for hundreds of years. I hope so; it felt very much like it had been.
Coflein has decided to start working again (if it had been working on Friday then I wouldn't have been walking round in circles looking for this circle yesterday!) and here's what it has to say about Y Capel:
Circle of 54 stones, 38 of which were visible in 1980, the remainder being confirmed by probing, one stand over 0.4m high.
The all important bit of information I was missing is the eight figure grid reference: SH99950005
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