Cupmark within a raised area on top of the stone.
Image credit: A. Brookes (17.10.2023)
thesweetcheat
A different angle on the cups on the western sloping face.
Image credit: A. Brookes (17.10.2023)
Multiple cupmarks on the western sloping face of the stone.
Image credit: A. Brookes (17.10.2023)
Cupmarks in the natural depression in the top of the stone.
Image credit: A. Brookes (17.10.2023)
From the southeast, looking up towards Park Neuk stone circle (to the right of the copse).
Image credit: A. Brookes (17.10.2023)
Berwick Law seen across the Firth of Forth, from Kinghorn on the Fife coast.
Image credit: A. Brookes (17.10.2023)
This circular stone platform, probably a low cairn or at least the remains of one, is some way south and downhill from the main cairnfield.
Image credit: A. Brookes (7.10.2023)
Small clearance type cairn towards the south of the main cairnfield.
Image credit: A. Brookes (7.10.2023)
Looking southeast over the excellent Mynydd y Garth 4, which stands on the eastern edge of the cairnfield. Mynydd Marchywel to the left of centre.
Image credit: A. Brookes (7.10.2023)
Excavation damage in the centre of Mynydd y Garth 4.
Image credit: A. Brookes (7.10.2023)
The excellent Mynydd y Garth 4 cairn, the finest monument of the day.
Image credit: A. Brookes (7.10.2023)
What appeared to me to be a section of ring bank, in the middle of the cairnfield. Looking west towards Bryn Mawr across the Clydach valley. The Carn Llechart monuments are further right along the skyline ridge.
Image credit: A. Brookes (7.10.2023)
Small cairn towards the northwestern (uphill) edge of the cairnfield.
Image credit: A. Brookes (7.10.2023)
Looking north over the cairn or barrow on the eastern slopes of Mynydd Uchaf. The eastern summit, with Brynmelyn Quarry cairn, is centre. Y Mynydd Ddu’s mountains are over to the left.
Image credit: A. Brookes (7.10.2023)
Looking east over the cairn or barrow on the eastern slopes of Mynydd Uchaf.
Image credit: A. Brookes (7.10.2023)
Cairn or barrow on the eastern slopes of Mynydd Uchaf, looking south towards Mynydd y Garth. Coflein suggests the monuments on Mynydd Uchaf may be later boundary markers rather than prehistoric.
Image credit: A. Brookes (7.10.2023)
Looking east. The distant hill on the skyline to the right is Craig y Llyn, the highest hill in South Wales outside the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park.
Image credit: A. Brookes (7.10.2023)
Looking north towards Y Mynydd Ddu.
Image credit: A. Brookes (7.10.2023)
I think the hill on the far right skyline is Tair Carn Isaf, which has some very impressive cairns.
Image credit: A. Brookes (7.10.2023)
The low remains of the cairn from the east. The toppled trig pillar can be seen behind on the right.
Image credit: A. Brookes (7.10.2023)
GGAT description:
Situated just below local summit. Heap of stones, mainly rounded pieces of quartzite 0.3m across (commoners report that stone in immediate vicinity is slabby, so this must have been brought in). The edges of the monument are unclear; overgrown with grass. c7.2m diameter; c0.2m high GGAT 72 Prehistoric Funerary and Ritual Sites survey 2001.
If approaching from the east, whether or not you’ve attempted to seek out the Pen-y-Dderi cairn in its bog, you’ll pass a modern standing stone memorial to John Dyfnallt Owen, Archdruid of the National Eisteddfod of Wales (1954 – 1956).
Looking west across the cairn, with the raised rim or bank in the foreground. The hill to the right of centre on the skyline is Mynydd Uchaf.
Image credit: A. Brookes (7.10.2023)
Difficult to see, but there is a raised rim or bank in the foreground. Looking northwest across the cairn.
Image credit: A. Brookes (7.10.2023)
The western rim of the cairn is in the foreground, where it has been cut across by an old track. Looking east towards the Heads of the Valleys.
Image credit: A. Brookes (7.10.2023)
Looking east from the location of the eastern cairn.
Image credit: A. Brookes (7.10.2023)
Plenty of stone scatter in the location of the eastern cairn. Looking north towards the mountains of Y Mynydd Ddu.
Image credit: A. Brookes (7.10.2023)
A couple of large stones in the grass where the western cairns are.
Image credit: A. Brookes (7.10.2023)
Looking south to Cefn Gwryhd itself from the western cairns.
Image credit: A. Brookes (7.10.2023)
Other than a greener grassy patch, there’s little to see of the western cairns on the ground. Looking west. The hill on the left is Mynydd Uchaf, the highest point on these two ridges either side of Afon Egel.
Image credit: A. Brookes (7.10.2023)
The location of the cairns indicated, from Cefn Gwrhyd itself to the south.
Image credit: A. Brookes (7.10.2023)
Looking south across the site. Not a lot to see.
Image credit: A. Brookes (7.10.2023)
All I could find that might be the cairn, a short section of stone bank. Looking eastwards to Mynydd Allt-y-Grug.
Image credit: A. Brookes (7.10.2023)
Looking south across the top of the cairn.
Image credit: A. Brookes (7.10.2023)
Whatever complex arrangements might be going on in this cairn, it’s all completely covered by the vegetation now.
Image credit: A. Brookes (7.10.2023)
The grassed-over cairn from the southeast.
Image credit: A. Brookes (7.10.2023)
GGAT description:
A slight bank of annular form with an uneven surface and an uneven centre; the edges are not always clear. Largely grass-grown with hardly any stone visible, but what little there is consists of quartzite and quartz conglomerate. Post-medieval boundary stone marked GCN at SE side. 14.1m diameter (N-S), 0.4m high GGAT 72 Prehistoric Funerary and Ritual Sites survey 2001.
Coflein descriptions of the three denuded cairns:
Western cairns
Two probable cairns: I – at SN73150878, GGAT Prn00490W, a slightly raised, 7m diameter, stony patch; II – at SN77130877, GGAT Prn02667W, thought to be the robbed and elongated remains of a cairn, 10m by 6m. Both these monuments and Nprn304570 [the eastern cairn] are thought to have been robbed to construct field walls.
Eastern cairn (SN7331008920)
A circular stony patch, 10.7m in diameter, believed to be the base of a robbed cairn.
The GGAT records also indicated a nearby fallen standing stone, just to the SE of the cairns in a field wall at SN7325708775.
It now lies on one long face, with what would have been the base still embedded in the bank which has been built up over it after the stone fell. It consists of a large block of sandstone of rectangular section; the long faces are shouldered, with the width at the top diminishing from 1.35m at what would have been the bottom to 0.6m at what would have been the top. The bedding planes of the sandstone can be seen in the short faces. What is now the lower side of the monument and would have been its NE face is embedded in the ground towards the bank, but the other (previously upper) end is propped clear, since the outer bedding planes on this side have come away, making the monument thinner at this point. A large triangular slab of sandstone also protrudes from the same side of the bank adjacent to the standing stone, but is probably not connected with it. Section 1.35x>0.6m; orig height c3.85m GGAT 72 Prehistoric Funerary and Ritual Sites survey 2001.
(1964/1976) On Cefn Gwrydd, a ridge N of Pontardawe, at about 295m above OD. A rectangular monolith, now on the NE side of a field bank , leaning so heavily to the E as to be almost recumbent. It is 1.4m wide by 0.5m thick, and when upright must have been at least 4m high. The stone must have been in its present position for a considerable time, as the field bank has been built over its base.
GGAT description, GGAT 72 Prehistoric Funerary and Ritual Sites survey 2001:
On a fairly level area at the base of sloping ground falling to SE; now much less clear than described by previous fieldworkers.
In 1962 is was described by RCAHMW as ‘A ring cairn, 11.6 – 12.8 m in external diameter, consisting of a bank of stones 1.8 – 2.5 m wide and 0.3 m high [and an] inner kerb of upright slabs survive[ing] for a short distance on the W. The top of a single small upright is visible near the centre. A stony area 6.1m by 4.6 m adjoining the N. side of the cairn is probably the result of disturbance.‘
Now very indistinct; bank (c3m across) survives only at N and E, with possible slight indications at N and E, but peters out on S side; interior slightly dished. Entirely grass-covered, with profile confused by many small hummocks; two blocks of sandstone (0.6/0.7m across) visible at SE, and a scatter of very small blocks (0.1m). 13.8 (E-W); 0.5m high
Further landscape context to show how prominent the hill is above its surroundings. The cairn is somewhat to the right of the high point. Seen from Llangiwg to the southwest.
Image credit: A. Brookes (7.10.2023)
The apparent mound from the north. The slabs in the other pictures are in the reedy grass. Looking towards Moel Sych.
Image credit: A. Brookes (13.9.2023)
The smaller slab, which does appear to be set on edge, with a chunk of quartz next to it.
Image credit: A. Brookes (13.9.2023)
Detail of the central slab, more flat than upright.
Image credit: A. Brookes (13.9.2023)
Looking southwest towards Cefn Penagored, with Foel Cwm Sian Lwyd rising behind.
Image credit: A. Brookes (13.9.2023)
From the path to the west, with the two small stones I first noticed in the foreground. The main Berwynau ridge rises behind.
Image credit: A. Brookes (13.9.2023)
Looking northwest, with the largest stone I saw in the centre.
Image credit: A. Brookes (13.9.2023)
Maybe visited 13 September 2023.
This is an elusive one. Chris and I tried to find it in gloomy wintry light back in 2018, but eventually drew a blank after walking round in circles. Gladman came the following year and was successful, finding an edge set slab that appears to mark the cist, tucked away in reedy grasses.
CADW and CPAT have had differing experiences of this monument. In 1994, CADW described it as:
“Ring cairn 12m diameter with central cist. Rough stoney encircling bank with upright stones forms outer kerb. Central cist composed of 2 uprights (1 side and 1 end slab)”
5 years later, CPAT said this about it:
“Ring cairn consists of low bank c.0.4m high and 1.5m wide, with small stone visible through vegetation. Fairly well preserved except on W side. Along the inner edge of the bank there are occasional edge-set stones forming a kerb – not on outer edge as Cadw description suggests. One edge-set stone on NE of centre has been interpreted as a possible cist.”
So does the cist have one stone or two? An inner bank or an outer?
Anyway, with all this behind me, and nearing the end of a joyous 13 and a half mile ascent of the highest peaks of Berwyn range from Llandrillo, I decide to try again. The path from Cwm Tywll cairns to the south squelches across boggy slopes; my feet sink into deep holes that are sometimes muddy and sometimes watery, but always wet. I’m really tiring now, and I recall the imminent crossing of Clochnant as a challenge the last time I was here with Chris.
Reaching the general area of this monument, I notice a pair of small stones to the right of the path, forming an edge to a roughly circular area of higher ground, with reedy grasses in its centre. Confident I’ve found the monument this time, I leave the path and poke about. I find a large slab, leaning over so as to be more vertical than upright. Just to the north of it is another smaller slab, this one definitely edge-set but partly buried and with a chunk of quartz next to it. Taking a step back, from the north these stones do appear to be incorporated in a clear mound. Happy that this is ‘it’, I take some photos and then plod onwards north. The crossing of Clochnant is difficult as feared, slippery mud where livestock have used the crossing. I make an absolute meal of it as I usually do, aching feet and legs now running out of steam as I near the end of the walk.
Looking back now however, what I hadn’t found was the clear edge-set slab in Gladman’s photos. The angle to the surrounding hills is similar, but not perhaps identical. I wonder if what I found wasn’t actually the right monument after all, although I remain convinced that it was ‘something’. There’s a lot of archaeology in this valley, so I’m ready to believe that there may be two separate monuments close together here. I reckon someone else needs to go and have a look now.
The southern cairn, looking southeast towards Moel Sych.
Image credit: A. Brookes (13.9.2023)
The southern cairn, looking towards Arenig Fawr and Yr Wyddfa.
Image credit: A. Brookes (13.9.2023)