thesweetcheat

Single cupmark on the second-from-SW stone.

The megalithic ironing board of the second-from-SW stone in the row. There is a single cupmark towards the pointy end, just above the small patch of light grey lichen.

The row from its southwestern end.

Looking north across the big cairn.

The large cairn with its modern addition.

Very large turfed-over round cairn, now topped with a modern rectangular clearance pile.

Another shot of the small turfed-over round cairn, with an example of the dozen or so modern clearance cairns behind.

Small round cairn towards the SE of the field. It is of a very different character to the modern cairns in the field, but is not one of the two mentioned in the GAT SMR (one of which is visible extreme left of shot). Whether funerary or not, it looks like a good candidate for being prehistoric. Pen y Garn rises on the right.

Little stone.

Big stone.

The hills of the Llyn peninsula can be seen on the horizon, left. On a less cloudy day the mountains of Snowdonia would be clear, straight ahead.

Looking southwest, with Cardigan Bay stretching away beyond.

Approaching the stones on the footpath from the NNW.

Looking down on Llwyngwril, with the Mawddach estuary and Barmouth beyond to the right.

Looking east along the inner rampart.

Excellent stone-built inner rampart. Waun Oer rises beyond: on the other side of the hill there are multiple standing stones, cairns and settlements.

Outer bank and ditch.

Approaching from the south along the Wales Coast Path. The outer bank is shrouded in dark gorse.

The fort occupies the top of the prominent rounded hill in the centre of the shot. Cardigan Bay stretches away behind.

From the SSW.

Seen from the NNW, below the intervisible hillfort of Foel Llanfendigaid.

Seen from the west. The ravages of the encroaching quarry are most obvious from this side. Llechlwyd promontory fort occupies the lower right-hand end of the hill.

Tal y Garreg from the south, across the Afon Dysynni. From this angle the Llechlwyd promontory fort is end-on to the camera.

Two pieces of red deer antler and a shin bone, found in January 2014 when storms exposed a section of submerged forest at Tywyn.

A chance conversation in a tea shop produced these.

Tal y Garreg from Tywyn across the Dysynni estuary. Llechlwyd promontory fort occupies the lower plateau at the left-hand end of the hill.

Another view of the little cairn with the slabs. Looking over Cwm Aman.

The southern group is much more overgrown than the others. This interesting little cairn has a couple of upright slabs that might suggest the remains of a cist.

Possible kerbing on the cairn at SN9947200677.

The cairn at SN9947200677, looking across the Cynon Valley with the Brecon Beacons prominent on the skyline.

Cairn at SN9947200677, the biggest of the 40+ in the three groups. Looking SE towards Coed Cwm Aberaman.

Representative cairn of NE group of 14. A number of these have been exposed by recent burning.

Small is-it-or-isn’t-it “standing” stone a little to the north of the cairnfields.

Another representative cairn in the NW group of eleven.

Representative example of cairn in the NW group, this one picked out by the course grass growing around its perimeter.

Some scale for the neat cist at SN98870106.

Cist in cairn at SN98870106.

Cist in the cairn at SN98870106.

Cairn with cist at SN98870106, isolated to the northwest of the rest of the cairnfield.

Landscape context for the cairn and nearby settlement of Mynydd Cefn-y-gyngon, across the upper Dar valley.

Hard to believe four years have passed since we last came to Merry Maidens.

Lovely clouds over Boskednan.

Lichen.