Rhiannon

Having gratified my curiosity at [Coeten Arthur], I made for a farm, a mile off, called Ystym Cegid, where I had the pleasure of beholding another, the most beautiful of any I had seen in my journey; the farmer, however, through a natural propensity to render any thing useful that may lie on the ground, has converted it into a sheepfold, by filling up the interstices with stones, very dissimilar to those originally erected to support the coping-stone, of the Cromlech: I have left them out, and the annexed print will shew its prior appearance. The coping-stone takes a triangular form, its thickness is about eighteen inches every where, and it measures thirty-six feet round; it is raised so high as to allow a person on horseback to go underneath. This also is called Arthur’s Quoit: which (to carry on the story [at Coeten Arthur]) we may suppose to have been thrown by the same hand; but, owing to a slip of the foot, in the moment of exertion, it went wide of the mark at least one mile.

From Edward Pugh’s ‘Cambria Depicta’ (1816).

In the village of Lavally about three miles from Clarenbridge there lies a Cromlech. The field where this Cromlech lies belongs to Thomas Heaney now but it was sold to him a few years ago by William Feeney. The Cromlech lies within 20 yds of the road wall. This field belonged to William Feeney when the Cromlech fell about eight years ago.

It is thought that this Cromlech would not have fallen only for a constant grazing of the sheep wore the clay from around the three standing stones so that they could not afford to hold up the top stone. The top stone is about 26 1/2 feet in circumference and about a foot and a half in height. The perimeter of the underneath is about 14’2”.

It is not known for certainty why this Cromlech was erected. Most people think that this was a druid altar in olden times but it is also thought that Diarmuid and Grainne took shelter under this Cromlech. There is also another stone in the wall not far from the Cromlech and is exactly like the stones of the Cromlech. It is thought that this stone was brought to be put in the Cromlech but it was brought no further.

From the Schools Collection of the 1930s, now being digitised at Duchas.

It’s not looking so good at Lavally, as you can see by this 2002 photo on FourWinds‘ Megalithomania site.

The illustration from Borlase’s ‘The Dolmens of Ireland’ book (made towards the end of the 19th century) shows rocks on top of the dolmen. This isn’t mentioned in the text. But it rings a bell with me... I’m sure I’ve read about people somewhere throwing stones up onto cromlechs for luck, or maybe for a more specific outcome. I’ll have to look into it. Maybe people still do it elsewhere...

I’d not thought of this, but the trouble with putting your cathedral in a fort is that all the soldiers get in the way. Apparently.

One its short sheep-bitten turf may yet be traced, in dry weather, the outlines of the foudation walls of its ancient and once splendid cathedral, built by Bishop Osmond – the Conqueror’s nephew – but transferred by Bishop Poore in 1220, from that bleak and barren position, into the sheltered vale and fertile meadows of the fishy Avon beneath. Old Aubrey gives the following version of the cause of its removal, which he says he had from Bishop Seth Ward, who extracted it from the musty records of the cathedral.

The old church in the castle of Old Sarum being seated so high was so obnoxious to the weather that when the wind did blow they could not heare the priest say masse. But this was not the only inconvenience. The soldiers of the castle and the priests could never agree; and one day when they were gone without the castle in procession, the soldiers kept them out all night, or longer. Whereupon the bishop, although much troubled, cheered them up as well as he could, telling them he would study to accommodate them better. In order thereunto he rode several tymes to the Lady Abbesse at Wylton to have bought or exchanged a piece of ground with her ladyship to build a church and homes for the priests. A poor woman at Quidhampton that was spinning in the street, sayd to one of her neighbours, “I marvell what the matter is that the bishop makes so many visits to my lady; I trow he intends to marry her.” Well the bishop and her ladyship could not conclude about the land, and the bishop dreamt that the Virgin Mary came to him and told him she would have him build his church at Merrifield, and dedicate it to her. Merrifield was a great meadow where the city of New Sarum now stands and did belong to the bishop, as now the whole city belongs to him.

From an article about books on Wiltshire in ‘The Quarterly Review’ for January 1858.

Quarrying operations at one time threatened to destroy this far-famed natural curiosity, but the Duchy of Cornwall has wisely limited the scope of their destructive efforts. [...] Immediately outside the rampart of the stone fort above the Cheesewring is a large natural block of granite, hollowed out by the weather into a rude seat called the Druid’s Chair. It is said that whoever sits in it is destined shortly either to become a poet or go mad – in fact, the Laureateship or Colney Hatch!

From a report about an excursion to the Cheesewring in Archaeologia Cambrensis, July 1896.

The notion of [another writer], that the stones once formed some of the supports of a covering stone of a large sepulchral chamber, appears probable. The prevalent local tradition which he and the author of the History of Radnorshire record, that the font in Old Radnor Church was hewn out of one of the missing stones, shows that the supposed removal took place at a remote period, and is so far valuable; but an examination of the four stones does not support the tradition of the use which was made of one of their missing fellows, for they are clearly erratic boulders from the adjacent volcanic rocks of Hanter or Stanner, of which a very truthful and picturesque sketch is given in Murchison’s Silurian System. Any local stone mason would, on examination, at once say the four stones could not be dressed or hewn into a regular form, as they would shatter into irregular fragments when broken or dressed.

From ‘The Four Stones, Old Radnor’ by Richard W Banks, in Transactions of the Woolhope Naturalists’ Field Club 1886-1889.

I have shown (in the Antiquary for April, 1912) why the Tolven Stone was set up on edge, and although this was done as recently as the middle of the nineteenth century, it had long ago acquired a reputation as a “crick-stone.”

Four years ago I had a chat with the daughter-in-law of the man who built the house at the back of which the stone stands, and who raised it to its present position. She told me that, quite recently, children had been passed through the hole in order to strengthen their backs, and added, “our old dog (a collie) ought to be strong enough in the back, for he’s backwards and forwards through it forty times a day.”

From Correspondence in ‘The Antiquary’ v10 (April 1914), our correspondent being George J Beesley. The reputation had to have been developed after it was put up, because otherwise, how would you shove infants through it? Or is he conceding that it already had the reputation (suggesting it had already been standing at some point)?

There is an old lios in the townland of Castlefarm, the next village to Clooneen. It was generally known that the owner of the land on which the lios was, would never remain too late at work and that he would not go out to work early in the morning. His neighbours asked him what was the reason of this and he told them that one morning he went out at day-break and began to plough near the lios, and a friend of his who had been dead for years told him to cease working at such early hours. He did as he had been advised, went back to bed for a few hours and when he returned he found that half the field had been ploughed in his absence. He then yoked in his horses, began to plough and did an ordinary day’s work. A few weeks later his cow strayed from him one evening and he could not find her.
It was near midnight when he went to the lios in search of her and he had a lantern in his hand because the night was very dark. As he came near the lios he heard the nicest music he ever heard played. After a while it changed into a kind of “caoining”.
He became very much afraid of this strange sound and he left the field and returned home and told his wife and family. Very soon after he became ill and he lived only six weeks.
Ever since people take care that they do not enter this field at a late hour.

From the Schools Collection of the 1930s, now being transcribed at Duchas.ie.

In Gartan Co Donegal there is a huge stone which is kept in remembrance of St Colmcille. Long ago some Protestants were removing this stone and trying to hide it on the Catholics. When they had it some distance away a plague of black rats surrounded them so they thought they would leave the stone back again and when they did so the rats disappeared. The Protestants never interfered with the stone again.

From the Schools Collection of the 1930s, now being transcribed at Duchas.ie.

Another story which I’m hoping applies to this stone. You get a lot packed in – fairies, Finn McCool, special tree species and petrification.

In a field at Balcunnin two miles from Skerries, there is a tall stone shaped somewhat like a man. It is said that a fairy queen was going to Fionn Mac Cumhail when a man leapt out of a hedge and tried to seize her. Like magic a hazel rod appeared in her hand and she turned her man into a rock.

From the Schools Collection of the 1930s, now being transcribed at Duchas.ie.

There is a great stone in Clogher till the present day and there was a giant buried under it. One day a man from Eglish was over there and he lifted one of the stones. He looked down and saw a bottle. When he was about to lift the second stone a voice called to him to get away from that grave. He left that moment and for a long time he never was seen about Clogher. About seven years after that he was after sheep about the same place. When he came near the grave he saw a man sitting on the stone which lay over it. He heard him singing a song about if any man would lift that stone that he would be put to death before the end of that week. From that day to this no one went near these few stones. It is to be found on the farm of Kathleen Kelly of Clogher.

From the Schools Collection of the 1930s, now being transcribed at duchas.ie. Perhaps this is the stone at Clogher (or perhaps there’s another).