Kammer

Visited 20th June 2003: We stopped off at Garn Goch on our way to Bristol, and it turned out to be a bit of a coup because William was convinced we’d stopped so he could try out the playground. It was lunchtime, so we took the opportunity to have something to eat, let Will stretch his legs and investigate Garn Goch.

Next to the site is a small information plaque, that says:

This is a burial mound probably of Neolithic date (about 4000 – 2500 BC) containing a stone chamber with a capstone.

I’ve seen the site described in a variety of ways, including chambered cairn, chambered long barrow or just cairn. Child and Nash describe it as, “a ‘hybrid’ Severn-Cotswold tomb, similar to Gwernvale“. The remaining mound is almost circular in plan, looking more like a round barrow than a long barrow, but this may be because of damage to the tomb from archaeologists and tree roots over the years.

Although there’s less stone to be seen here than at Gwernvale, the tomb feels marginally less defiled. Despite the playground and adjoining football pitch, this is a pleasant spot. How many Neolithic sites of this calibre can boast their own park bench and public toilets?

Visited 5th June 2003: To round off a half day of combined child care and megalith hunting, I stopped at IGER to see if I could get permission to see one of the two Cerrig Llwydion. There was a woman working in the same field as the eastern stone, so I wondered in with Alfie on my back and tried to look harmless. She turned out to be very friendly, and said she didn’t think it would be a problem for us to go and take a closer look at the stone.

It was weird being up close to something so familiar from a distance. The packing stones around the base are very striking, but probably date back to the excavation in 1986. The ploughed down round barrow was surprisingly easy to spot from the stone. We were a bit short of time, so I decided not to ask about seeing the western stone (something to save until another time).

Visited 15th June 2003: Cerrig Arthur isn’t far from Sylfaen Farm (marked on the Landranger). The tarmac finishes at the farm, but not the road, which becomes a dirt track with a vehicular right of way. This means you can drive on past the farm and park just before the first gateway. From here you need to walk on through the gateway, then approximately north west up the hill to the circle.

The three largest stones at Cerrig Arthur are part of some sort of megalithic construction in the centre of the circle. The remaining stones that make up the circle itself are relatively small. The site is often described as an embanked stone circle because it sits on a little artificial shelf cut out of the hillside. Interestingly Cerrig Arthur is another site where public footpaths converge. Indicating that it’s been a significant landmark for centuries. We were really lucky with the weather. In fact it was extremely hot and sunny (hence the silly hats) and the mountains to the south looked great. It was a beautiful place to find after a long drive.

When we got back to the car we found it only had two functional gears! Luckily these were 3rd and 4th, so I got us into Barmouth for some time on the beach, then limped the poor old car all the way home, thrashing the clutch as I went.

Visited 15th June 2003: Julian mentions this site in the Modern Antiquarian book, and includes a photo of Kendric’s Stone. This was my second attempt to see the stone (the first time there was a service going on). We found the stone at the opposite end of the church to the altar, next to a tiny wooden vestry. It has a plaque next to it, and when we visited there was some sort of dried grass propped up against it. This stone really doesn’t look very prehistoric, and it does look heavily worked.

The other point of interest at this site is the raised circular churchyard that surrounds Llanelltyd Church. It’s sheltered by trees, and has a wall running around most of it. At the back of the church some buildings are built up against the churchyard, so that you could walk onto their roofs from ground level. It must be weird sitting in a one of these buildings, knowing that there are human remains just on the other side of your wall! All in all it’s a pleasant place to visit, but I have yet to be convinced that this type of churchyard necessarily has a prehistoric link.

Visited 13th June 2003: It was a spectacularly sunny day, so I thought I’d peg it up Pendinas during my lunch hour. My objectives were to find and photograph the round barrow and hut circles within the defences of the fort, then find my mate who was working somewhere on the hill clearing bracken.

I parked at the end of the footpath that approaches the fort from the north, and got to the top in less than 20 minutes. Once I’d caught my breath in the shadow of the Wellington Monument, I headed off to the south west to try and find my barrow and hut circles. The latter were easy to spot, but it turns out they’re not easy to photograph (nothing I took was worth posting up). Then I spotted what I’m pretty sure is the round barrow.

By this time I was running out of lunch hour, so I headed back down the hill, and with some help from a local woman who was walking her dog, managed to track down my mate. He’d hidden away at he top of the Rope Walk Fields, and was wielding a scythe very professionally. We had a few minutes to chat, then both of us had to get back to work.

Visited 5th June 2003: I asked permission to park at Caer-Arglwyddes, the farmhouse to the north west of the circle (the circle is on a public footpath so no need to ask about access). With Alfie in the baby back-pack I headed off up in approximately the right direction for the circle.

The weather was all over the place. It had been raining when I left the car, and during the walk up the hill it had cycled through a variety of conditions. The grid reference I used to get to this site is probably too far south because I got to the circle much quicker than I’d bargained for (my GPS gave me SN6965491183). The stones are very low to the ground, so it was largely luck that I found them. Up by the circle the sun came and went, and when it shone the light on the wet grass around it was beautiful.

What a tiny little thing Cylch Derwyddol is! I don’t know how much stone is hidden under the soil, or how much exposed stone has been eroded away, but this site can’t have consisted of anything very large when it was built. Stone circles are very unusual in Ceredigion, so I got excited about it despite the size of it. It crossed my mind that this could be a cairn kerb, but the stones are very small, and there’s no sign of any cairn material (it’s listed as a circle on the NMRW).

Visited September 2001: On the way to Clynogg Fawr William fell asleep in the car, so we started this excursion at the pub, sitting outside with our drinks as he dozed. When he woke up we left the car in the pub car park and headed off to find the chamber. We walked through the churchyard, stopping off to look inside (quite an interesting little place) then and down the lane, eventually following an overgrown path to get to the chamber.

This is a beautiful little site, overlooked by the an array of mountains including the amazing breast shaped peak of Gyrn Goch (see IronMan’s photo) and cairn topped Gyrn Ddu. The chamber itself is charming despite the iron fence. We clambered underneath it and explored, but I only found out relatively recently that we failed to spot numerous cupmarks in the capstone. Well worth the walk, especially if you take into the account the added bonuses of the church and the pub!

Visited 5th June 2003: This site isn’t in very good nick compared to Cae’r Arglwyddes II. It’s smaller and more scattered. From what I could make out it looks like there is an exposed cist, but it’s so overgrown with stinging nettles that I’m not sure how well preserved it is. The cairn is also less easy to get to than it’s neighbour.

Visited 5th June 2003: This cairn is on private land with no public access (although it’s worth noting that there’s no fence between it and the road). When I visited, the field it stands in was full of cattle including an enormous bull. Luckily the herd was over the brow of the hill, so I moved swiftly.

The site turned out to be quite a beauty, not so much because of the cairn material, but because of the exposed cist. I managed to walk all the way around the cairn before realising just how well preserved the cist was. The setting is also spectacular, with views out towards the Dyfi Estuary (which I failed to capture in any of my photos).

Visited 5th June 2003: This was my third visit to Bedd Taliesin. I thought I’d try and get a better understanding of the site as a cairn, rather than focussing my attention on the exposed cist and capstone. There are large kerb stones visible around the site (the largest on the east side), and what remains of the cairn mound suggests that it was originally relatively large. Perhaps this is why it is so well known locally.

The sites I went on to visit further up the valley suggest to me that Bedd Taliesin stood at the head of some sort of sacred route, stretching down from the mountains (or up from the sea?) along the Cletwr Valley. This would be similar to the nearby strand of sites leading up towards Pumlumon from Plas Gogerddan.