Translated from the Welsh the name Caerfai, which is given to the bay and the fort, means fort bay. It’s another one of those strange Welsh/English naming things, because the fort’s name refers to the bay that was named after the fort (if you see what I mean). Things have very nearly come full circle.
As well as being known as Caerfai Camp or Fort, the site is also known as Penpleidiau Camp, after the small island that lies to the south of it.
Taken 15th April 2003: Sunrise over Caerfai Bay, looking across at Caerfai Camp and the tiny island of Penpleidiau.
Visited 15th April 2003: We had quite a bit of difficulty figuring out which rocky outcrop was which, but in the end I think we got to Carn Meini. It’s an enormous mass of stones, all higgledy piggledy. You look into it and see standing stones and burial chambers all over the place, but they’re not real, just natural coincidences that look extremely similar to the real thing.
We had a snack at Carn Meini, then William insisted on climbing to the highest bit he could see. Children know no fear! This place would be a good stopping off point for slightly older kids because they could roam around and explore (without stressing their parents out too much).
I’ve got one more photo of Carn Meini to post up, but I’ll be putting that under the Carn Menyn Chambered Cairn part of the site.
Taken 15th April 2003: I’m 99% certain that this is not a burial chamber. It may be a natural rock formation or a modern attempt at creating something dolmen-like.
I came across it in amongst the lunar landscape of Carn Meini, and it took me by surprise. Possibly inspirational stuff for our prehistoric ancestors?
Taken 15th April 2003: A slightly shonky photo of Carn Meini from the north east (I think), with William posing cheesily in the foreground.
Three pages of write up, some photos and some shamelessly borrowed diagrams and illustrations of the site
A short description of Alastair’s visit to the site, and one photo.
An excellent aerial photo of Moel Drygarn, clearly showing the Iron Age ramparts, and the three huge Bronze Age cairns that stand within them. For some reason the stone of the ramparts and the cairns looks a bit pink.
Taken 15th April 2003: From the south, standing very near to Carn Ferched, you can clearly see two of the three massive cairns on Moel Drygarn (the third is only just visible to the right).
Taken 15th April 2003: On our way back to the car from Bedd Arthur, this shot is taken from the south west.
Moel Drygarn consists of three sizeable cairnes Bronze Age within the defenses of an Iron Age hillfort. According to Mr Barber (in his book More Mysterious Wales), the three cairnes are known as Môn, Maelan and Madog. They are named after the three Welsh kings that are buried underneath them (allegedly).
Taken 15th April 2003: The site, looking south east towards the footpath that runs beside the forestry plantation.
Taken 15th April 2003: The stone, taken looking (approximately) north towards Foel Drygarn.
Taken 15th April 2003: On our way back from Bedd Arthur the sun had decided to show its face, so I took some more photos. This hot is taken from the north (or there abouts).
The big boulder in the distance, against the forestry plantation, is a good landmark when you’re trying to find the site because it’s right next to the footpath.
Taken 15th April 2003: On our way to Bedd Arthur I took this shot of the site from the north east. In the distance are some natural boulders, with Lou and the boys standing amongst them.
The name Meini Gwyr should have a to-bach (or circumflex) over the ‘y’ for it to be read corectly in the Welsh. The word maeni means stones, and the word gwyr means either men or husbands.
If the to-bach was over the ‘w’ then the word would becomes crooked, which makes a bit more sense to me. Having said that, I’ve never seen this spelling, but on Stukley’s illustration there is no to-bach at all. This suggests that the name may originate from either ‘men/husbands’ or ‘crooked’.
One of the Web sites relating to a collaboration between the Universities of Leicester, Newport and Southampton. This page links to interim reports on the 2001 and 2002 seasons, including the excavation of Falkner’s Circle.
Yr Allor are thought by many to be the remains of a three stone cove, along the lines of larger examples at Avebury and Stanton Drew (the Glandy Cross complex is often compared to Avebury because of the density of sites that once stood here). There are a number of accounts describing the third stone, and the existance of a third stone tends to be accepted by most people, but the site may not have been a cove. In his excellent book Prehistoric Preseli N.P. Figgis writes...
Investigations have shown that the leaning stone was deliberately propped that way, which undermines the idea that Yr Allor might have been a cove...According to Figgis an area of cobbling and some early Bronze Age pits were found around the two stones, and nearby a number of stone flakes were found, suggesting that Neolithic axe making had been taking place.
The name Yr Allor means the altar in Welsh.
Visited 15th April 2003: Yr Allor are one of the most enigmatic parts of the Glandy Cross Complex, but sadly there’s no public access to them. You can just make them out from the top of the field that Meini Gwyr stands in, but they’re largely obscured by the hedgerow.
Ideally there would be access to the stones from Meini Gwyr, or the main road, but as stands a legitimate route to Yr Allor doesn’t exist. Luckily I have magical hover boots.
Visited 15th April 2003: Another shot from the east, this time orientated towards Cerrig Lladron (I think).
Visited 15th April 2003: The stones from the north west, with the OS Landranger map for scale.
Visited 15th April 2003: The view from the south east (approximately speaking), looking towards the Preseli Mountains. The amusingly named Carn Sian is directly above the larger stone.
Taken 14th April 2003: The view from Tre Wallter Llwyd out towards Carreg Samson (marked with the red arrow).
Taken 14th April 2003: Two more fenceposts, this time looking off to the east (or there abouts). These are both touching the chamber.
Taken 14th April 2003: A close up of one of the fence posts. This one is in direct contact with the capstone.
Taken 14th April 2003: Looking approximately north east, along the sensitively placed stock fencing.
Taken 14th April 2003: From the north west. Lou is trying to figure out where Carreg Samson is. You can see it from Tre Wallter Llwyd, but you need to know where to look.
Visited 14th April 2003: There’s a public footpath to Tre Wallter Llwyd, but don’t be surprised if you have trouble following it. Approaching from the A487, there’s a track leading north to Tre Wallter Farm which is easy enough to find. You need to follow this track to the farm, then pass to the east of the farm house so that you’re continuing between it and the dilapidated corrugated iron barn (you can’t miss it, it groans in the wind).
Just past the barn is where things get tricky, because the footpath isn’t marked. It should branch off to the east between two hedge banks, but the nice farmer has fenced it off with barbed wire. Even if the barbed wire wasn’t there, you’d be hard pressed to walk between the hedge banks because they’re so overgrown. When we reached this point I went and knocked on the door of the farmhouse to find out how we were expected to get to the burial chamber, but sadly there was nobody in.
We decided to keep going, travelling along a parallel route to the footpath in the field to the south of it. This involved carefully moving a single strand of temporary electric fence, then re-erecting it once we were over it (not easy with a baby on your back). We passed through this field until we reached the end of the overgrown part of the public footpath, and guess what, the nice farmer had put another barbed wire fence across this end of the path! Luckily we had already deviated from it, otherwise we’d have been mightily pissed off.
From here we got a glimpse of the burial chamber in the hedge bank to the south east, on the opposite side of the field. When we got close up, we found that the chamber has been fenced of with stock fencing, as if it was just an inconvenient bump in the hedge bank. The fencing looked quite new, and it was pressed right up against the chamber to minimise the amount of grazing that the land owner would loose. It would be impossible to ram a fence post into the ground, as it rested against the stone, without doing some damage. Anything sensitive under the soil would have been skewered by the fence posts.
The chamber should be a delight to visit. It looks out towards the coast, and you can just make out Carreg Samson to the north west. It’s one of those sites where you wonder why they put it there, right up until you’re standing next to it. Then it hits you just how amazing it is.
Despite the setting, I was quietly seething by the end of our visit, and I’ve since contacted Pembrokeshire County Council and Cadw about the footpath and the fencing. If I get anything back from them, I’ll post it up.
Taken 13th April 2003: Looking south, down the defensive ‘ditch’ between the stone ramparts on the outside of the defenses (left) and the natural stone outcrop.
Taken 13th April 2003: From outside the fort looking in, here are the southern end of the defences with two random walkers and their dog for scale. The walkers are about to pass through the gap in the ramparts.
In the distance is the island of Carreg-Trai.
Taken 13th April 2003: The promontory, with the fort’s rampart cutting across the shot, left to right. On the left hand-side there’s a gap in the fortification, but I’ve no idea whether this is modern or part of the original layout.
Taken 13th April 2003: Looking south west, in the forground is the smaller of the two chambers. In the distance are Point St. John and Ramsey Island.
Taken 13th April 2003: The northerly chamber, taken looking (approximately) west, with Lou and Alfie just behind it.
Taken 13th April 2003: This is the larger and more complete of the two chambers (the northerly one). This shot is taken looking north west(ish).
Visited 13th April 2003: By the time we reached the Carn Llidi Tomb(s) the weather was really poor. The rain let up for a bit, and I rattled off some photos. By now William knew the drill, so he just hid behind the concrete bunker to shelter from the wind and rain.
The tombs are slightly overgrown and have a neglected feel to them. I don’t suppose many people visit them, as they’re not on the direct path to St David’s Head. The views were pretty good despite the weather, so this is another site I want to go back to when it’s sunny.
These two tombs are a bit of a climb from the main footpath from the direction of Coetan Arthur. We later realised there’s a very good alternative path leading up to the tombs from the farm to the south (it’s marked on the Landranger as a track). If you wanted to go straight to the Carn Llidi Tombs from the Whitesands car park (the only place you can park around here) then approaching from this direction would be quickest way in.
On our way back to the car we got chatting to the farmer, and he was extremely affable. If I lived in such a touristy area, I reckon I’d be a bit more crabby than that (come to think of it, I already am).
According to Cambria Archaeology Carn Llidi Bychan is a prehistoric boundary wall, so there may not be much to see on the ground.
We walked relatively close to this site on our way between Coetan Arthur and the Carn Llidi chambers, but there’s loads of gorse covering the area. If it hadn’t been blowing a gale I might have tried pursuading Lou to explore further, but I knew not to push my luck.
Visited 13th April 2003: I made a very cursory visit to St Davids’s Head Camp as a diversion on our way to Coetan Arthur. William needed a rest from the wind, so Lou hid with him and Alfie behind a big boulder.
I nipped down and had a look at the ramparts of the fort, which are thankfully very easy to spot. They’re ruinous, but still relatively well defined. It’s difficult to judge the scale of them from a distance, but fortuitously a couple of walkers provided scale for my photos. I was tempted to go further down the promontory and explore, but the weather was appalling so in the end I didn’t stop for long.
Visited 13th April 2003: It was a howler of a day when we headed out to Coetan Arthur, and the sand from the footpath kept blowing in Williams’ eyes. By the time we arrived, nerves were frayed. William wanted to go under the capstone, but this just kicked up more sand, so it wasn’t long before he was in tears.
Lou hid round the corner with the boys while I took a close look at the tomb and tried to get some photos despite the wind. Coetan Arthur is in a fantastically exposed situation on the back of the ridge that forms St David’s Head. Probably a good site to visit when the weather is a bit better. This was only my second ‘earth fast’ tomb, and it’s certainly a corker.
Taken 12th April 2003: This is the view of Castell Henllys from A487. I guess it’s just a matter of time before they get my money.
Taken 13th April 2003: From the south (or near enough) looking into the chamber.
Taken 13th April 2003: Looking south west(ish) towards Ramsey Island.
The water between the island and the mainland is called Ramsey Sound, and it’s home to the infamous stretch of white water known as the Bitches. This was clearly visible with the naked eye, but it isn’t at all clear in the photo.
Taken 13th April 2003: Looking approximately south east, towards Carn Llidi. I used lots of fill-in flash to give the impression that there was sunshine.
Taken 13th April 2003: This is the view you get of the chamber if you approach along the Pembrokeshire Coastal Path from the south. It’s about three quarters of a mile off at this stage, but you can still see under the capstone.
The site of St Ninian’s Chapel was in use during the Iron Age period. Here’s what CANMORE has to say about it...
The site was recovered by excavation by Prof. O’Dell between 1955 and 1959, revealing the foundations of a 12th century church, overlying a pre-Norse(?) church, which in turn overlay an Iron Age site (possibly a wheel house) yielding pottery datable to about the 2nd century AD. Each level was accompanied by contemporary graves, those of the Iron Age being centred on a crouched burial of late Bronze Age type, which lay SW of the chancel of the medieval church.
A C O’Dell 1958
Not much to see here I’m afraid. In July 1977 contractors working at the airport uncovered the cist and there was an emergency excavation lasting one week. Here’s some blurb from the Shetland Today web site:
A burial in a stone cist discovered at Sumburgh airport has been dated to 3,200BC. It contained the earliest human remains as yet found in Shetland – the bones of at least 18 individuals along with various grave goods. Some of these artefacts and bones can be seen in the Shetland Museum in Lerwick....and here’s what CANMORE says about the site:Although this stone cist is now below the airport’s control tower, there is a wealth of nationally important archaeology to be seen in the vicinity.
The site was greatly disturbed but can be reconstructed with confidence as a boulder delimited cist containing a multiple burial which had been completely disarticulated and which was accompanied by several stone beads and broken pottery of possible Beaker or Early Bronze Age date.Kammer x
Visited 23rd March 2003: We drove up to the farm and asked permission to go and see the standing stone. The farmer was fine with this, and asked us to park in the yard. Here we were met by a big friendly horse who thought he was about to get his dinner (William loved that).
The stone is very near the farm, but approaching from the farm it’s difficult to spot until you’re almost next to it. I found this site rather charming because the stone itself leans at an extreme angle, and is surounded by farmyard tat (a tractor tyre, an old gate and a water tank). The objects around the stone probably protect it from livestock.
We spent a while at the stone, and came away with a a good feeling about it. Well worth a visit if you’re in the area, but only if you don’t mind standing stones that are barely standing.
Ironically it looks like Nant-y-Maen gets it’s name from the nearby stream, which is itself named after the stone! Translating from the Welsh, nant means stream, and maen means stone. So the stream’s name means Stream of the Stone.
The nearby farm also has the name Nant-y-Maen, so it’s probable that this is the way it panned out...
1) The stream was named after the stone.
2) The farm was named after the stream.
3) The stone was named after the farm.
I suppose that the next logical step would be to rename the stream Nant-y-Nant-y-Maen.
Taken 23rd March 2003: As we we leaving the sun set over the hills, so I grabbed this shot with the stone in the foreground.
Taken 23rd March 2003: I took this shot to try and show the two thin seams of quartz running through the Nant-y-Maen stone. They’re very distinctive, and must have been a contributing factor for the people who chose the stone.
