GLADMAN

Looking toward the Afon Ysgethin.... there are many other settlement features out there, apparently displaying great continuity of human habitation.

Looking to nearby Llyn Irddyn and Llawlech.

The massive cairn upon Moelfre can been seen top left. Difficult to resist the siren call.

Viewed from the ancient ramparts of Craig y Dinas, the additional defences, the hinterland rock formations almost approximating a natural cheveux de frise.

Toward the summit of 1,932ft Moelfre – at least, according to the compass – from the massive cairn.

A very substantial cairn, this..........

The hillfort (upper centre right) from the excellent northern flank of Craig-las (Tyrrau Mawr). The exquisite Mawddach estuary can be seen beyond reaching Barmouth Bay, with Llawlech, the southwestern terminus of the great ridge of the Rhinogydd, rising above. A lot of archaeology out there.

Although Llyn Arenig Fach has been ‘enhanced’ as a reservoir, nonetheless we have a major Bronze Age cairn sited above a lake. Note also the proto-standing stones – what I assumed to be glacial erratics facing off to each other across the water. Carnedd y Bachgen surmounts the impossibly black crags towering above to the left.

An aerial view of the cairn from Drosgol..........

Looking south(ish)

Pumlumon Fach (Pen Pumlumon Fawr’s north-west ridge) rises top right of image....

Looking approx north across the monument... choose a hilltop here at Pumlumon... and it is crowned by cairns

Sunburst upon the cairn at Nant Measnant Fach... Drosgol, crowned by two more, rises across the reservoir.

Fast fading light............

The landscape below has changed beyond recognition across the course of millennia.... yet the great monument still crowns Y Garn.

Looking from Y Garn across the Nant y Moch reservoir toward Drosgol (left) and Banc Llechwedd-mawr (right), both outlying hills crowned by a pair of large Bronze Age cairns.

Shattered, with a drystone windbreak.... for sheep?.... this nevertheless remains a very substantial summit cairn indeed.

The siren call of Pen Pumlumon-Fawr from across the very substantial footprint of the cairn....

Looking across the cairn’s massive footprint deep into the enigmatic upland Bronze Age landscape of Pumlumon. Cadair Idris crowns the horizon, centre left, with the great Aran Fawddwy visible to the right.

The massive summit cairn of Y Garn........

My rucksack highlights the huge dimensions of this mighty – and it would appear obscure – upland cairn.......

Note the rucksack upon the right-hand part of the cairn: this is very substantial.

Looking toward Y Bala-way. In such quiet landscapes legends were born.... such as Michael Collins, who was interned at nearby Frongoch following the Easter Rising of 1916

Arenig Fawr rises across Llyn Celyn....... the reservoir, created during the 1960s to supply Liverpool, covers the former village of Treweryn. Incidentally, this attractive stretch of water was the inspiration for the excellent Manic Street Preachers’ song ‘Ready for Drowning’ (apparently the late R S Thomas, too, although I happen to think Mr Wire approaches the complex issues of Welsh identity in a far more relevant, thought-provoking manner than a self-contradictory priest).

Towards the mountains of Central Snowdonia from the cairn. Moel Siabod can be seen, centre right skyline......

Arenig Fach, topped by the mighty Carnedd y Bachgen, rises to the west.

Approaching from the approx south-east

Looking across to the excellent Pared y Cefn Hir hillfort, rising above the Llynnau Cregennen

The legendary Cadair Idris (Idris’ Chair) – formed by the triumvirate summit peaks of the mountain – rear overwhelmingly above the Bronze Age cairns upon Carnedd Lwyd. It’s not hard to see how such places become the epicentre of legend. There is a further prehistoric cairn upon Mynydd Moel beyond Cyfrwy. Pen-y-Gadair peeks through cloud top right.

Sunburst...... topographically speaking, it might be suggested that the outcrops supporting the cairns mimic the great, central summits of Cadair Idris beyond.

Very, very windy at the time...

The Arans crown the left-hand skyline, by the way. But that’s another story.