GLADMAN

Annoying people for scale.... apologies, it’s been a while since I’ve been somewhere with others actually on site!

The counterscarp may well fool one into thinking this is bi-vallate...

Although univallate, the defences here are impressive...

Ok, mudstone might not be the most ‘refined’ of construction media, but fair to say longevity isn’t an issue...

Note the remains of the former cairn...

It’s probably fair to say that the excellent dolmen at St Lythans – what with the overwhelming Tinkinswood just down the road – would be found in the kitchen at any ‘Chambered Cairn Ball’... but then, that’s not necessarily a bad thing, is it?

Worth dropping in again after all these years to remind oneself just how substantial this capstone truly is....

Hard to find... and harder to photograph, this was my favourite site of the day.

Once posited as a medieval well... “The suggestion that this may be a well-chamber is clearly erroneous, although the cist may have been added to later to form a small shelter. (CPAT 2003)”

Not having researched beforehand, this one proved a very pleasant surprise.

Arguably, winter is the optimal time to visit Pen-yr-Heol Las...

Llyn Llangorse is just visible in the gloom

Looking towards Mynydd Llangorse ... quite a few cairns that-a-way, too.

An unexpectedly substantial monument, with a smaller example just north.

The foreground plaque, incidentally, commemorates (appropriately enough) a Mr Robert Moor who died in 2021. Now, just as I was pondering who this chap was – and why here? – who should turn up en-masse... but his family. Me: Any idea who this man was? Young girl: Yes. My grandad! Quite bizarre. It appears the former gentleman was a local and said family had no idea they had placed his ashes at the burial site of another village ‘elder’... albeit one who lived millennia before. Continuity, right? “Great Love Lives On”, to quote from the dedication. Indeed, so it does.

Highlighting how one should ALWAYS look beyond the obvious modern marker cairn....

Clearly ‘excavated’ at some point...

Not the finest of weather/light... but hey, a pretty good cairn

As bonus sites go, this is surely up there with the best?

If this isn’t a long cairn I’ll eat my hat.

The very well preserved Chamber ‘A‘

Chamber ‘A’.

Chamber ‘A‘

Chamber ‘A‘

Chamber ‘B’. The capstone is immediately to the right of the orthostats.

The superb capstone of Chamber ‘A‘

Chamber ‘A’ with Gilman Camp in profile beyond.

Chamber ‘B’. The dislodged capstone can be seen to the left.

Chamber ‘A’: more-or-less intact, with dislodged capstone

Chamber ‘A’. Gilman Camp can be seen rising beyond...

The magnificent Chamber ‘A‘

Chamber ‘B‘

Chamber ‘B‘

Traces of ‘archaeological matting’ out of shot extreme bottom left indicate the former final resting place of the ‘Red Laddie’ some 33/34k years ago now [natural light, 13 second exposure]

From within. I swear one could sit here all day. But best not... unless one can abseil. Or happen to be Aquaman.

From the cave entrance [natural light, approx 8 seconds exposure]

Looking from the path traversing Foxhole Slade... the cave is within the cliff face (approx centre) accessed to the left.

Looking down Foxhole Slade. The fort is top right, the tide well and truly ‘in’.

The wondrous cave is out of sight below.... but not out of mind.

With the wind a’blowing some knots I don’t mind admitting a fair degree of vertigo. One assumes the former inhabitants were not prone to sleepwalking?

Incidentally, the evocative Craig-y-Dullfan might just be made out centre left... or not. My eyes are no longer that good.

My mama told me, there’d be days like this. Not very often on Pumlumon, mind. Hopefully, TMA will be seeing a lot more in the future.