The ‘road’ leading to Glibes Farm is very rough and the car’s suspension had a good workout. The tall standing stone was easy enough to spot in a field on the left.
The sign asking you to keep the gate closed due to livestock (fair enough) is still there and there is now a second sign requesting that trekkers stay to the track (also fair enough). I slid the gate bolt open, squelched through the mud and was soon at the stone.
This is a fine stone with pretty coloured lichen on its surface. There are decent views to be had. Well worth a visit when in the area.
The lane winds onwards, dropping down into a shady valley before re-emerging into the sunlight. And there, in a field on the left hand side, is Wern Derys stone. Not much changes in this part of the county. I don't know if many other TMA-ers have been to visit this stone since Baza's fieldnotes almost 8 years ago, but what I do know is that there's still a sign saying "Stock – please close the gate", and still no sign saying "bugger off". Thus encouraged, a closer encounter is had. This is a shapely, tapering stone. Herefordshire's tallest, just beating the Queen Stone to it (in the face of not much other competition, it has to be said).
The view of the stone from the lane presents its widest face, clad in yellow lichen. The north and south sides are narrower and face down the valley towards Ysgyrd Fawr (sadly hidden by trees from the stone itself). The whole of the south-western vista is taken up by the Black Mountains' escarpment. It hardly seems likely that the placing was indifferent to such a brooding presence.
Four miles south of Arthur`s Stone stands Herefordshire`s tallest standing stone, Wern Derys (or the King Stone).
You need the OS map to find this one. It`s about 1/2 mile down a no through road leading to a farm. On the left-hand side there`s a gate with a large notice saying something like `STOCK - PLEASE CLOSE THE GATE`. It`s in the field beyond that gate. There`s no footpath, but the sign on the gate didn`t say `BUGGER OFF`, so I went in.
The Herefordshire SMR says on the stone that "there are traditions 'of a general said to be buried there' and of a farmer digging round it & unsuccessfully applying the strength of 12 horses to root it up."
The stone had fallen by 1982 (when its total length was seen to be 9 foot) and it was reerected in 1989.
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