GLADMAN

Located upon the high ground between the Afon Pysgotwr Fawr and Doethie Fawr, this obscure round barrow/cairn(?) is not shown upon current OS mapping and is not to be confused with the much larger Carn Penrhiwllwydog just under half a mile uphill to the east. Combining a visit to both sites, along with a sojourn at the stone circle upon nearby Bryn y Gorlan, would make for an intriguingly satisfying day in unfamiliar surroundings.

Yeah, obscure is the appropriate adjective for this one, The Citizen Cairn walking right past before sussing what was what. As with many a Bronze Age funerary site, just who got to be buried here... what ‘position in society’ so to speak... and who was reserved for the larger, higher monument is something we can assume, I guess. But will never have a definitive answer.

As it was, I had a few hours to make use of before striking camp ready for an early start to search out that elusive Bryn y Gorlan ‘circle the next day... so what better place to hang out than here, with far-reaching views southwards towards the summits of Y Mynydd Du?

Dyfed Archaeological Trust reckon:

“When visited as part of the PFRS project in 2004 the site was found to be a circular mound, 12m in diameter and 0.75m high, located on a break of slope just below the top of a hill.” [Cook, N. , 2006 , Prehistoric Funerary & Ritual Sites Project Ceredigion 2004-2006]

Set amongst the glorious scenery of eastern Mynydd Epynt... away from all the (unfortunately, what with Communist lunatics murdering civilians for fun in Ukraine, all too necessary) squaddie training business... south of Builth Wells, this mutilated round cairn might well draw no attention at all from those passing by upon the very minor road... even from the antiquarian-minded lacking a 1:25k OS map. Combine a visit here with the even more obscure Banc y Celyn stone circle to the north, however, and you’re laughing.

Yeah, the scenery is superb, the backdrop of The Black Mountains, viewed in profile while approaching across the hilltop to the northwest, being arguably the finest The Citizen Cairn is aware of. That of The Brecon Beacons, enjoyed by diverting the gaze a tad to the south, is worth writing home about, too. If only one still did those things.

As for the monument... OK, it is very ‘messed about with’. Nevertheless, several orthostats strongly suggest a ‘chambered cairn’ of some description to me. Coflein notes:

“A much disturbed round barrow with stone structural elements.... approximately 10m in diameter and up to 0.5m high..... Three edge-set stones are visible and appear to be part of a structure within the cairn... To the south of the barrow there is a large edge-set slab 1.05 x 0.15 x 0.6m high, aligned northeast-southwest...” [J.J. Hall, Trysor, 16/2/2009]

As it was, I happened to be in the locale for ‘logistical reasons’, but was more than happy to reprise my original 2016 visit and take advantage of the fabulous summer evening light to hang out for a while.

Fantastic site, this.... in a fantastic location, too. Just too far ‘down the slope’ to visit following an audience with the Hafen stones/Drum Ddu cairns a couple of years back, I congratulate myself upon my untypical restraint back then. Yeah, you’ll want to devote a fair bit of time to this one, such is the form and vibe.

I approached in a rather, er, roundabout way, starting from road’s end below Gors-wen, at the head of the beautiful Cwm Chwefri, subsequently arcing to the right around the trees north of Little Pudding Cottage, prior to heading uphill above the eastern bank of the Nant Hafen. Pretty rough going through high fern... but there you are. It’s well worth a detour in order to make the final approach from above and to the northeast to enjoy as splendid a view of a cairn as I’ve had the pleasure in a long time.

The first thing to strike the blissed-out traveller is “wow, this is a big one” .... some 60ft in diameter, in fact. OK, some fool might’ve taken a chunk out of it at some point, but nevertheless (in my experience) relatively intact... Needless to say, the Coflein description doesn’t begin to do the site justice. Or convey much at all really:

“A cairn, 18.3m in diameter and 0.9m high, much disturbed.” [J.Wiles 23.04.02]

The cairn is seemingly positioned by those who took such great trouble to fashion such a massive stone pile here millennia ago so Pen-y-Fan and Corn Du just grace the southern horizon... incidentally in a manner very similar to the not-so-distant Saith Maen stone row. As I hang out in the sun, Gorllwyn, with its cairn cemetery and massive prostrate monolith, graces the western aspect... and the thought occurs: isn’t it about time I re-visited that brutally wild summit? Oh dear, here we go again. You know those moments when you can curse your grey matter for coming up with such hair-brained schemes? Tell me about it.

Briefly stopping off for a shufty following a full day spent checking out Craig Twrch’s numerous cairns, I have to admit to being somewhat baffled here. The archaeologists at RCAHMW reckon the site represents the remains of a Roman signal station, sitting as it does beside Sarn Helen..... a Roman Road. However, for balance, this view has to be contrasted with CADW’s official scheduling (CD156) which states the following:

“The monument comprises the remains of a circular earthwork, which probably dates to the Bronze Age (c. 2300 – 800 BC). It stands on a prominent saddle in the hills with a wide panorama to the south and north-west, alongside Sarn Helen, the preserved line of the Roman road. It consists of an inner mound of c.14m diameter, standing up to 1.4m high, the central area of which is dished, lying c. 0.3m below its rim, except in the centre where an area has been dug away and later fires built, and on the southern side where a massive boulder c.3.6m long resting on its long side lies in a deep hollow. The inner mound is surrounded by a ditch c.1m wide and c.0.5m deep with traces of a slight counterscarp bank outside it. Opposite the boulder the ditch is discontinuous for a distance of c.3.5m, giving the impression of a causeway which has five smaller boulders on its western side. The origin of the site seems to be as prehistoric funerary monument consisting of features of a round barrow and recumbent stone circle. The large boulder may have originally been upright. It has also been suggested that the site was re-used as a Roman signal station.”

Now, while I’ve no wish (no, really) to be thought of as biased against the bloody Romans (and, let’s face it... of all the things they did for us, building signal stations probably wasn’t the most inspiring), perhaps the ‘recycling angle’ might fit best here, bearing in mind the wealth of ‘metaphysical’ lore associated with Carreg y Bwci... aka ‘The Goblin’s Stone’? The name presumably a reference to the large recumbent ‘boulder’ which sits upon/within the mound, it’s hard to imagine the perfunctory actions of legionnaires who probably died of boredom – or hypothermia – two millennia or so ago putting the wind up a passing traveller to the same degree as lingering folk memories of burial rights/rituals made manifest in the apparent antics of a mythical Welsh supernatural creature? Or is it just me?

This heavily overgrown hillfort is located within Coed y Neuadd, its rocky site towering over the course of the Afon Rheidol as it winds a serpentine course towards Aberystwyth from its cradle in the bosom of Pen Pumlumon Fawr.

Indeed, the site is so overgrown I initially assumed the ‘knoll’ to the immediate east was where I wanted to be.... However, once the radar’s attuned, the fact that ‘things really are not making sense’ usually saves the day. Usually. And Tan-y-Ffordd is well worth the effort of finding, proving to be a powerful hillfort, making full use of the dramatic natural slopes to the south. Now any medieval-heads out there may well find themselves aghast at the fact that the site is completely overlooked by high ground to the north... and would’ve been a doddle to take in any siege situation... but, of course, that wasn’t a consideration back then. Let’s face it, you wouldn’t have wanted to try and storm it with your war party.... unless you were some lunatic nutter like Putin.

The most powerful artificial defences naturally face the ‘path of least resistance’ and loom above the track upon which one still approaches, this presumably a pretty established short-cut over the millennia accessing the valley bottom from the direction of Cwmbrwyno? The main entrance appeared to be to the west, with an impressive rocky ditch to the east

I approached along said track starting at the farm of Pen-rhiwlan, the walk also affording the opportunity to visit a nice round barrow at SN705800, not to mention boasting some pretty cool views of Cwm Rheidol.

As with its neighbour surmounting Bryn Mawr, the cairn crowning the summit crags of Craig Twrch has been substantially messed about with by fools with no regard for who they are... where they are from... and, presumably, where they are going. However, unlike Bryn Mawr’s poor monument, the great circular footprint can still be readily discerned here.

Furthermore, the enclosure and particularly large marker cairn created from the stone pile (arguably) do possess a kinda dodgy charm. The positioning is excellent, the monument perched upon – and encroaching upon the edge of – impressive rocky crags, this reminding the impressed visit somewhat of, say, a Dartmoor ‘tor cairn’?

The monument overlooks a number of other, smaller cairns, like Mother Hen watching over her brood. One, however, located just off the main path beyond the fence line to the south, is quite unexpectedly probably the finest – after Carn Fawr, obviously – upon the whole ridge, bearing the well preserved remains of a cist.

A more or less trashed summit cairn stands in stark contrast to the magnificent Carn Fawr just a third of a mile to the Northeast, a large rectangular drystone enclosure having obviously consumed much of the former structure. Nevertheless, Bryn Mawr is a great viewpoint, has clear prehistoric pedigree and, as part of a far-ranging funerary landscape encompassing some two miles, well worth a visit.

Coflein reckons:

“A much disturbed Bronze Age cairn. It has undoubtedly been robbed for stone to build the nearby sheep fold .... It is impossible to determine how large the cairn was originally, and now only a strip of cairn material survives, 8 metres long by 2 metres wide and up to 0.60 metres high.” [R.P. Sambrook, Trysor, 28/3/2013]