The Modern Antiquarian. Stone Circles, Ancient Sites, Neolithic Monuments, Ancient Monuments, Prehistoric Sites, Megalithic MysteriesThe Modern Antiquarian

Miscellaneous Posts by postman

Latest Posts
Showing 1-20 of 102 miscellaneous posts. Most recent first | Next 20

Aberglaslyn west, Cwm Cyd (Ancient Village / Settlement / Misc. Earthwork)

More enticement from Coflein......
Situated on a wide shoulder of land about 190m NW of the farmstead of Oerddwr Uchaf and just W of a low hilltop is a substantial circular structure. It is double walled using orthostats or large mainly upright stones. The outer wall is of large slab-like stones. built into a gentle slope with a level interior. No evidence for an entrance survives. Dimensions overall about 6.5m in diameter, walls about 1m thick and 0.3m high. A length of what could be contemporary enclosure wall consisting of lines of boulders statrts from the N side of the structure and runs straight for about 16m to a point where it turns at a right angle and continues for a further 14m or so. A further similar wall may have existed on the SE side. In all this would have formed a fair sized enclosure to the W of the low hilltop. This site, previously described by the OS as a hut ((SH 54 NE/39), could equally have had a previous use as a ring cairn (ie a ritual site) of Bronze Age date.

Aberglaslyn West, Bwlch Golau (Ancient Village / Settlement / Misc. Earthwork)

This is the Coflein entry that brought me here....

Sited in a wide valley of the upper reaches of the the Afon Goch on a level shelf of land just S of the stream. A site described as a round hut in the RCAHMW Inventory for Caernarfonshire. Its walls are partly of large upright stones and there is some evidence of double walling with rubble piled between. The W side of the site is virtually destroyed and the rest shows no sign of any entrance. It could well be a Bronze Age ring cairn as opposed to a dwelling. Diameter about 6m and thickness of walls about 0.9m.

Cerrig yr Wyn (Standing Stones)

Found this on Coflein

Two small standing stones standing apart in sloping pasture, divided by an old trackway or bank. The name translates as 'the stones of the lamb' (source: Os495card; SN68SE11). That to the east is the larger, a rectangular flat slab, while that to the west is a far smaller pointed stone. Both stones appear to occupy small platforms shelved into the hillslope, but the apparent platform below the western stone seems to be a lump of naturally outcropping rock, rather than an artificial platform. The stones are overlooked from the north-east by a large rounded outcrop in the field, which has the form of a Bronze Age barrow but is again a natural feature. It is entirely possible that its resemblance to a burial mound influenced the siting of the two standing stones here. A further possibility advanced by Simon Timberlake is that the two stones mark the line of a longer Bronze Age trackway coming up from the coast, via Clarach, Gogerddan and Penrhyncoch, and climbing into the foothills around Plynlimon passing other standing stones (see: Timberlake, S., 2001. Mining and prospection for metals in Early Bronze Age Britain: making claims within the archaeological landscape. In: Bruck, ed., Bronze Age Landscapes: Tradition and Transformation. Oxbow, 179-192.). This is a possibility, although difficult to prove, as these stones command spectacular views west along the valley of the Nant Silo.

Iwerddon (Cairn(s))

Coflein says this
Remains of a small cairn on the bare mountain pasture called Iwerddon. The cairn is 10 feet across with a cist at its centre. The cist measures 48" in length by 28" in width, oriented north-west/south east, with the two side slabs of stone and one end slab still in situ. The site shows signs of having been robbed in the past.
So I gave it a go.
A small road leads north west from Penmachno passing as it does Ty Mawr farmhouse, birthplace of Bishop Morgan, the translator of the first complete Welsh Bible, published in 1588. But before you get to that place, there is a large clearing amid the trees east of the road, the cairn with cist is in that clearing. The going looked pretty hard, and with two soft footed townies in tow I decided we might get closer to the cairn if we could find a way through the forest. There was indeed a way through the forest, after what seemed like too long we found a parking place in the forest next to a sign saying Iwerddon 2.6miles, bingo, I thought, and off we went down this really thin path through dense forestry plantation. Dodging as we went mountain bikers with insanely good balance, I'd have fallen off a dozen times, but none of them did, we kept going on the path, with nothing more to entice us on than a fine view of Moel Siabod with Tryfan over it's right shoulder.
The path was really taking too long to take us into the large clearing where the cist is, so I decided to scramble through, pick a way through the tightly packed trees as soon as I could see daylight through them. Once into the clearing, I was shocked and appalled to see that we were all the way back nearly to the road, massive sighs of disappointment, we had passed by the cist by not much more than a hundred yards but with no way to get to it. I was pondering what to do, we could slowly walk back up the hill, but the ground was horribly uneven with huge tussocks of grass, if we'd gone up the hill and maybe found the cist we might not have been able to relocate the car, just as I was pondering our predicament, Eric's mate said something really stupid and annoying which I can not reproduce here, it annoyed me so much the answer of what to do resolved itself for us, time to go, quit this place and find somewhere else easier to find.
I would have gotten away with it too if not for these meddling kids.

South Clettraval (Standing Stone / Menhir)

I can think of something else to say about this stone Greywether, I couldn't find it, not a sniff anywhere. Cant understand it, it's clearly there somewhere. Next time.

Cnoc A' Chaisteal (Souterrain)

At NF 8627 7532 there are the remains of an earth-house in an eroded sandy cliff on the north side of Vallaquie Strand.
It is situated approx 1.7m below the present ground level and consists of an entrance passage 0.6m wide, of which 1.6m of walling is still intact, with a lintel at its west end. The height of the passage is unobtainable due to debris.
The chamber, thought locally to be oval and corbelled, seems to be about 2.5m in diameter, with the roof supported by a central drystone pillar. Around the earth-house is a dense scatter of shells, animal bones and potsherds both above and below the earth-house. About 5.0m of walling can be traced in the sand to the west of the entrance, and may be a continuation of the north wall of the passage.

Gyrn Ddu cairn (Cairn(s))

Coflein says....
A disturbed round cairn, 13.1m in diameter and i.52m high, having a lesser cairn set upon its summit.

Postman says....
I didn't go over because time had run out, far too much sitting around gawping. It is over half a mile from the bigger pair to the east, as such I've added it as a separate site. None of the cairns are at the summit of Gyrn Ddu but rather on lower subsidiary peaks.

Garn Saethon (Hillfort)

Coflein says......A roughly triangular area, 100m N-S by 77m, upon a craggy summit, rests on abrupt crags on the E and SW, elsewhere it is defined by a ruined wall.
On the E and N are traces of relict field walls below the enclosure.

The fort is highly visible from Carn Fadryn and from the road as you drive to Llanbedrog to see a ruined dolmen, but that was as close as we got, it's on the list now so it might not be too long, but don't hold your breath.

Waen Gyrach (Cairn(s))

Coflein's Site Description
The site consists of three closely associated funerary monuments. There is a ring cairn to the east, which measures approximately 15m in diameter and includes an earth and stone bank. There are 18 large stones in the bank, and it is denuded on the western side. In the centre of the bank, there is a mutilated cairn consisting of small to medium, sub-round stones and it measures no more than 0.3m high. To the west, there is a kerbed cairn measuring approximately 6m in diameter. It has large stones on the edge and small to medium round stones in the centre. To the south, there is a spoil heap. The final monument is a cist burial, which lies to the south-west. There is a flattened round capping stone to one side and the cist has been cut into the natural outcropping. In addition, there are the possible remnants of a cairn to the south.

Wow, really ? all that ?

Tydden-Grasod (Cist)

Sourced from Coflein....

The remains of a cist found during field investigations. Orientated wnw-ese; it measures 1.4m x 1m. There is no trace of a capstone. The cist consists of slabs laid end to end with a single slab at each end.

Llyn Y Wrach (Ring Cairn)

Coflein says........
A large ring of stones, circa 12m in diameter with wall circa 1.5m wide comprising large flat upright orthostats with an entrance at the south-west, marked by large orthostats and facing out on to the natural slope of the ground.

Postman says.......
I couldn't find it.
But, my optimistic penned in dot on the map was not quite in the right place. Now upon my return home ive found other cists and kerb cairns very close by so I will return soon, maybe on the winter solstice.

Clym Saith Maen (Standing Stone / Menhir)

A Coflein relieved blue spot yielded this standing stone.
This is said to be one of the seven standing stones referred to in the name Clym Saith Maen (see NPRN 304064). It is a 1.4m high monolith, apparently decapitated.
I tried really hard to see this stone from the road, I wasn't going to wander around the boggy gorse ridden marshes without being able to see my destination, I made four passes at it but it remained aloof.
A better map shows the stone by a fence on the border between farmland and rough national park.
Next time.
The coflein entry says it is one of seven, as does the sites name, but I can only see six on the map and coflein, where could it have gone, or does it still lurk in some nearby hedgerow.
Next time.

Benty Grange (Round Barrow(s))

The grid ref for this barrow should be SK153638.

Just a short note to would be barrow botherers, the barrow marked on the map half a mile north west, right next to trig point 374m is apparently not prehistoric but Anglo Saxon. It is worth a visit if you don't mind it's comparative lack of age, it's quite a low barrow but it has a ditch round it, it's a minute from the road, there's a small standing stone? embedded in the wall, good views, Minninglow can be seen on the southern skyline. But it's only fifteen hundred years old or so, still twice as old as Macchu Picchu and Angkor Wat.

Porth Llwyd (Burial Chamber)

After a wonderous equinox wander about the Druids circle I planned on looking for and hopefully finding Porth Llwyd portal dolmen. I knew from George Nash that it may not be findable as it is now descheduled by the Office of works and described as " Presumed destroyed by flood "
But I still hoped to at least locate the capstone, and one or two uprights could still be in place, but alas it was not to be, two hours of digging scratching going round in circles and wading through brambles all on what I supposed to be private property. I could find no trace of it, the Dolgarrog flood disaster (of which i include a photo of from the information board, not the actual flood, just a description of it) has taken it all away.

Only more hours spent searching round in circles can prove its destruction.
Any information about it's location would be greatly appreciated, it is not at the grid ref supplied by me here. (Taken from Nash)

Dinas (Llanfairfechan) (Ancient Village / Settlement / Misc. Earthwork)

Map only calls this Dinas, or Settlement, Ive yet to take a closer look, but with several barrows and a myriad of hut circles, it shouldn't be long. He says adding another site to an already impossible list of places to see.

Maes y Caerau (Ancient Village / Settlement / Misc. Earthwork)

I got in by a back door to Coflein and found these details and some aerial photos of this cracking looking interesting site. I'll try to get back up as soon as the weather improves

http://www.coflein.gov.uk/en/site/300033/details/MAES-Y-CAERAU+HOMESTEAD/

Waun Hir (Ring Cairn)

The first time I came here I found it difficult to find, but find it I did, the summer ferns hid it all too well, So I reckoned a winter trip would reveal more.
We returned on the afternoon of the 5th January but alas we failed utterly to find it, i'm sure we must have passed within 50 yards of it. Gggrrrr I was pretty annoyed I can tell you, and not to mention wet and dirty.
This is a difficult site to locate even when you've been there before, in my defence it was seven years ago. Hey ho, one more go.

Dan y Coed and Woodhouse (Ancient Village / Settlement / Misc. Earthwork)

The two pictures above were taken from the information board at Llawhaden castle, there are many iron age forts / camps / enclosures in the vicinity including Pilcornswell camp, Broadway and Holgan iron age camp.

Sark

Ive spent most of this afternoon looking for an image of this Dolmen, Ben Fogle went there once on Country tracks or something but this Flicker image is all I could find..
http://www.flickr.com/photos/die_kurze/5828446126/
Is this it ?

Brenig 47 (Round Cairn)

A trio of nice pics by Victor
http://www.theoldfashionedantiquarian.co.uk/tofa/photo.aspx?id=229
Showing 1-20 of 102 miscellaneous posts. Most recent first | Next 20
After visiting literally thousands ancient places and driving between fifteen to twenty thousand miles every year I can only conclude that I'm obsessed with these places, and finding this website ten years ago only compounded that obsession, at least I'm not alone anymore.

My favourite places are:

Ring of Brodgar
Callanish
Balnauran of Clava
Torhouskie
Swinside
Nine stones close
Bryn Celli Ddu
The Druids circle (penmaenmawr)
HafodyGors Wen
Gwal y Filiast
Grey Wethers
Boscawen Un
La Roche au Fees
Drombeg
Uragh
Talati De Dalt

and these are only the ones that immediatly spring to mind, so many stones and not enough lifetimes.

My TMA Content: