postman

Only time seperates me from a visit to these hut circles, look at that name though, I ask you ?
A couple of good aerial photos are found on Coflein here
coflein.gov.uk/en/site/301041/details/HUT+CIRCLE+SETTLEMENT+NORTH+OF+CWM+DYLI+POWER+STATION/

Another cairn/cist that lies in thrawl of mighty Tryfan, coflein says;

Burial cairn, probably Bronze Age, on the lower south-west facing slopes of Cwm Tal-y-braich. Stone built circular cairn, measuring c. 8m in diameter and up to 0.9m in height. The cairn has been disturbed in the past, with several rubble-filled hollows visible in the centre and a large exposed cist (with adjacent capstone) on the south-west side.

Whilst trawling through coflein I came upon this
interesting sounding cairn, it’s now on the list of places to go.

Cairn consisting of two very large slate slabs sitting on top of one another. The top stone is at least 1.8m long and 0.8m wide with possible polished stone axe grooves or incised rock art. The rock art consists of approx. 20 incised lines, ‘v’ shaped in profile and roughly 5-8mm deep and between 10cm-30cm long. 5 other quartz blocks are placed around the slab. Cairn is situated on a knoll with views to the sea and up the valley. Might be capstone of dolmen?

rock art ? dolmen ? I’m on my way. (almost)

A day off work often sees me dissapearing into the Welsh wilderness, a bit of snow wasnt going to put me off so at about 10.30 am I turned off the snowcleared main road and made my way onto the horseshoe pass.
The radio mentioned closed roads in the Peak district but nothing close by, with much lip biting and wheel spinning I gave it a go. Just a hundred metres shy of the restaurant/shop/carpark I could go no more, maybe I couldve struggled on at half a mile an hour, i’ll never know because infront of me reversing towards me came a big 4x4 with tow rope ready, after some general piss taking they towed me to the crest of the hill, and there the car was going to stay whilst I climbed the modest hill. So far not so good .
Equipped for any type of weather, I strode forward like someone who rarely fails, I would have made it too if it weren’t for those pesky snow drifts, with every footfall my booted feet sank all the way to my knees, it was more tiring than any other kind of walking, my breathing got hard, my chest hurt, all I could do was try and make it to the big stone I could see further up the hill, only it wasn’t a stone , and like the straw that broke the reindeers back it was actually an igloo, three of them, igloos ? in Llangolen ? I’m not going to make it this time, I took a few arctic photos and turned back, after not even getting a quarter of the way. It was easier getting back down than getting up. I’m off work next week maybe another attempt with slightly less snow will afford some success.

A round cairn, 30m in diameter and 3.0m high, set on the Llandegla-Penycae boundary.

Coflein helps me out for yet another big bump survey. Coming soon

A centrally depressed round cairn, 19m in diameter and 2.1m high, opened c.1890, producing black ash, small bones, a horse tooth and a flint arrowhead.
(source Os495card; SJ24NW15)
J.Wiles 15.11.02

OAN Site visit 2002/10/11/PJS. OAN field survey, located by GPS to an accuracy of +/- 1m. The site is located on the south west side of Offa’s Dyke Footpath and the base of the north side of the cairn has been truncated by it and is actively being eroded.

Phwoar... flint arrowheads, and over two metres high, i’m on my way.

A mutilated cairn, 21m in diameter and 2.2m high...
Is all that coflein says of it, to me anything over a metre high is worthy of a visit.

Remains of a barrow, visible as a prominent earthen mound rising to a height of 3m above the surrounding ground. A hollow 1m deep at its centre suggests some past disturbance.
From Coflein

Three metres high ?
No chance !

Just north of Llyn Cwm Ystradllwyn is a stone row and a quater of a kilometre east of it is a small standing stone, there are hut circles all over the place too, heres what Coflein says about them.

A row of five boulders aligned north-west to south-east and estimated at approx. 20m long including gaps. It is possible that there are two missing stones. and
A standing stone 0.5m high by 0.3m wide and 0.3m thick and triangular in plan. The stone is sited close to both a field boundary and a sheepfold and is in an upright position.

Standing stone, probably dating to the Bronze Age, standing 1/7m in height and measuring 0.5m in thickness and 0.4m in width. It is a tall, thin stone tapering to a rounded point.

From Coflein

A large tilted slab whose upper surface swarms with cupmarks.

Coflein not giving much away again, race you to it.

A row of three cairns that occupy an upland saddle, the middle one maybe a ring cairn, a fallen standing stone 1.7m long is there also, a few hundred metres east is a wrecked burial chamber known as Coetan Arthur (yes another one) but its not on the map, coflein assures me its still there. If I have time I shall hunt them down on the equinox.

A white quartz block, 1.1m high by 0.8m wide3 by 0.5m thick, that appears to have been wedged upright. The Field in which this monument stands is named for it.

From Coflein

Remains of a cairn circle within enclosed moorland on the north side of the Nant Gwryd, in the bottom of the Dyffryn Mymbyr. Circular on plan, measuring about 5m in diameter and up to 0.4m in height, within a kerb of at least five outwardly leaning thin orthostats. There is a central stone cist, measuring 1.45m from NNW to SSE by 0.6m transversely and 0.4m in depth. The cairn circle would appear to surmount the west half of an earlier platform cairn, which is ill-defined and robbed throughout – except on the west side, where a kerb of at least six stones is visible.

From Coflein

This Standing stone may not be all that ancient, I was bumming around the Canmap and came across this discription of the stone -

At NM 5434 2820 is a wedge-shaped standing stone 2.1m high by 2.5m in girth at the base. It does not appear to be a prehistoric standing stone and is possibly one of a series of marker stones along the pilgrim route from Green Point to Iona.
Visited by OS (R D) 2 June 1972.

I hope they’re wrong, though Iv’e got nowt against pilgrim routes specially if it takes you somewhere as neat as Iona.

Coflein describes it thus.

Site Description:
Three orthostats c.1.0m high define a rectangular chamber 2.4m by 1.5m. The partly displaced capstone is 2.0m by 1.6m and 0.9m thick. The chamber has been filled with field clearance stones. There is no trace of a mound or cairn.

Sounds alot like the picture of Whitehouse burial chamber further west, with luck I shall take a look shortly

We didn’t have much time left and I promised Eric we could go to Ludlow castle, so I made do with these misty pics from the road.
Coflein describes it thus..
An elongated defended enclosure, 270m by 70-32m, laid out NNE-SSW above steep slopes to the E, defined by banks and scarps, having an entrance at the furthest SW point, beyond which is a further enclosed area, 120m by 30-50m; additional banks also extend the work to the N.

Hillforts/defended enclosures are really great because they combine two of my greatest loves ancient history and sitting around on hilltops daydreaming.

Set upon a low eminence within an open hollow, a kerbed cairn, at least 10m in diameter, defined by kerb-ring having eleven visible members, c.7.0m in diameter, one of which, now fallen, is over 1.0m long, two internal orthostats may have been cist members; an outlying orthostat formerly lay to the SW.
From Coflein

350 metres south-west of a hillfort upon a natural outcrop is this well preserved round barrow, about 10 metres across and nearly 2 metres high

This massive stone, in rough pasture,stands 3.2m high and is slightly inclined towards the E; the longer axis is aligned approximately N and S. The stone measures 1.8m by 0.6m at ground level and tapers gradually to a height of 2.4m, where there is a pronounced shoulder on one side; the top is rounded.
RCAHMS 1971, visited 1960.

Standing Stone. A slab of red sandstone conglomerate is situated in a hollow between two sand-dunes on the Dunaverty Golf Links. It measures 2.7m in height and 1.2m by 0.3m at the base. The lower half of the SW side exhibits a marked triangular projection. The top is rounded and the rough surface of the stone is heavily pitted with natural cup-shaped hollows caused by weathering.
RCAHMS 1971, visited 1962

A cairn which, together with a nearby standing stone, is situated on fairly level ground at a height of just over 105m OD. The whole of the area in which these features are situated has formerly been under cultivation, and the cairn has been trimmed by the plough to an oval shape; it measures 8.5m by 7.3m, and is not more than 0.6m high. A pit which has been dug into the centre reveals that the cairn is composed of a mixture of earth and small stones. At a distance of about 3.5m outside it there are the remains of a bank which, where best preserved, is now 2.1m thick and 0.6m high. The bank is presumably an associated feature, comparable to the bank that encloses the cairn on Cnocan a’Chluig (NR61NE 11), but no trace of an accompanying ditch is now visible on the surface. The standing stone, some 12m to the NNW, measures 1.47m in height and 1.12m by 0.38m at the base; it rises with a slight taper to a squared top. This stone is set into the foot of a low scarp, about 0.6m in greatest height, which is all that now survives of what has probably been a bank roughly concentric with the bank surrounding the cairn. On the N arc it has been completely obliterated by former cultivation, but a gap on the SE arc, 3m wide, could conceivably be an original entrance. Although from a superficial examination it is not possible to determine either the true nature of this bank or its relationship with the cairn, it seems possible that both it and the associated standing stone represent the ploughed-out remains of an embanked stone circle. A second large stone, which may once have stood on the bank, has been built into a late field boundary a short distance away.
RCAHMS 1971.

Standing Stone. This stone (Colville 1930) is incorporated in the wall bounding the E side of the public road in front of Glenlussa Lodge. It is 2.3m high and measures 1.2m by 0.4m at the base, the longer axis being aligned NW and SE. The top of the stone has a rounded profile sloping down from NW to SE.
D Colville 1930; RCAHMS 1971, visited 1960.

A standing stone incorporated in the wall bounding the NW side of the approach road to Craigs farm, measures 2.6m in height and 1.7m by 0.3m at ground level; the longer axis is aligned NW and SE. The top slopes down steeply from a rounded peak towards the NW.
RCAHMS 1971, visited 1960

A standing stone in an arable field measuring 1.1m by 0.4m at the base, rises with a slight taper to a maximum height of 2.1m. The E face of the stone is smooth, but the W face and the two sides are rough and uneven, while the top, which is otherwise level, rises to a rounded peak at the N end.
RCAHMS 1971, visited 1960

NR 7431 2413 (information from D Colville 1960). A chambered long cairn discovered by Colville several years before 1960. It is situated on a level position on a slight rise and is oriented almost N-S with the axial chamber at the north end. It has been considerably robbed but still stands 6ft high behind the chamber. The north end has been almost denuded and is now low and turf-covered, merging almost imperceptibly into the surrounding turf. The edges cannot be precisely defined, but the cairn appears to be about 50ft wide at the north end and 40ft wide at the south end. It is 87ft long from the entrance to the chamber, but there are indications that it extended northwards to make a fore-court, giving an overall length of nearly 100ft. The south half of the cairn has been greatly disturbed and is now about 3ft high, with the cairn material of irregular angular stones exposed. The only upright stone at the north end of the cairn is the portal stone of the chamber, but two large prone slabs, on either side of the entrance have probably fallen from a facade. The fine chamber at the north end is almost entirely exposed as if it had been cleared out, and a large capstone lies against the west side. A second chamber, at right angles to the axis and entered from the west, is partly exposed half-way along the west side. It is full of debris and only the tops of three upright stones can be seen.
A S Henshall 1972; RCAHMS 1971, visited 1963.

The chambered cairn is as described and illustrated by the previous authorities. Two depressions on the displaced capstone are probably weathered cup marks. The cairn is preserved within a new forestry area.
Surveyed at 1:10 000.
Visited by OS (JB) 3 November 1977.

An Orkney-Cromarty type, short, horned cairn with a Camster-type chamber. It still stands 10’ to 11’ high, but has been greatly disturbed, especially by robbing at the edges which are so overgrown with heather that only the north and NE sides can be traced even approximately. The diameters seem to have been about 70’ E-W by 63’. There are definite horns at the NW and NE corners but their limits are difficult to establish. The entrance has been from the east, the passage now starting about 20’ inside the edge of the cairn, and being visible for only 4’, roofed with lintels. The present entrance into the chamber is through a hole in the roof of the central compartment which reaches a height of 6’.
The cairn was excavated before 1911, the only find being a heart-shaped amulet of polished serpentine which was in Dunrobin Museum in 1911 (RCAHMS 1911, visited 1909) but was lost by 1957.
A S Henshall 1963, visited 1957.
Visited by OS (E G C) 26 May 1961

This chambered cairn is as described and planned by
Henshall; the chamber is choked with stones.
Revised at 1/10,000.
Visited by OS (J B) 16 December 1976

Coflein says;

Monolith 2.0m high, 1.1m wide and 0.6m thick. 175m to the NW is a further possible standing stone (SN21043118, Dat Prn7702).
See also Nprns304107 and 304108.
(source Os495card; SN23SW2)
J.Wiles 28.02.02

When we visited we could not find this stone but did find its partner the nearby Garreg Goch
Coflein says this of Pystyll Gwyn;
An erect monolith, 1.9m high by 1.0m by 1.1m deep.
(source Os495card; SN41NE2)
RCAHMW AP955065/41
J.Wiles 27.01.04

A well-preserved, short, horned cairn , probably
the earlier of the two chambered cairns known as the Tullochs of Assery . Excavation by Corcoran in 1961, in advance of the raising of the level of Loch Calder, revealed an apparently unique plan of two chambers set back to back and approached by passages through the north and south facades. Finds from the excavation are in the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland (NMAS).
Visited by OS 3 November 1964; NMAS 1977.

Corcoran’s excavation remains open but otherwise the cairn is well-preserved although the waters of the loch lap the margins and have caused some damage.
Visit by OS 17 August 1981.

This upright slab of sandstone, facing ESE and WNW, slighty pointed at the upper end, is 6ft 6ins high, 4ft 2ins broad and 1ft thick.

Clach Clais an Tuirc is a quadrangular stone is 6ft2 tall and 2ft x 3ft in section, found down a track in forested land

From Canmore

(A:ND 0481 6005) standing stone (NR)
(B: ND 0477 6015) Standing Stone (NR)
OS 6” map, Caithness, 2nd ed., (1907)

The more southerly stone (’A’) is 3ft 10ins high, 2ft broad and 8ins thick. It faces ENE-WSE, and the top is pointed.
The other stone (’B’) faces N-S and is 4ft 6ins high, 2ft 1in broad and 1ft 1in to 7ins thick.
RCAHMS 1911.

These two standing stones are as described by the RCAHM.
Resurveyed at 1:2500.
Visited by OS (R D) 3 November 1964.

There used to be 14 or 15 parallel rows of stones, forming in outline a semicircle. The stones are set with there broad faces in the line of direction which is SSE- NNW, the stones are low and pointed none higher than 2.5 ft tall . Alas, road widening and “improving” destroyed almost the whole site and now only 6 stones remain and they are lightly set

From RCAHMS

A souterrain enters the SE corner of a modern enclosure, the entrance is about 2ft wide and sharply curving it slopes down, after 3ft the roofing begins it then runs south for 22ft, then turns WSW and goes another 18ft. From the entrance it widens untill 35 ft in it is 4ft6 wide and high.

On the summit if Moel Sych is this kerbed round cairn 16 metres across and 1 metre tall with a modern marker cairn on top

A round cairn 20 metres in diameter and 1m tall, the central part of the cairn is contained by a circular wall 12.5 metres across

On a mountain top 784m tall in the Berwyn range is a round cairn 23 metres in diameter and 1.6 metres high. 9 metres to the S.W is a natural boulder 3m x 2m and 1.1 metre tall, it is on the county border, it is unsure which is Bwrdd Arthur, maybe both.

A round cairn 28 metres in diameter and 2.4 metres high. Being sited on the top of Cader Berwyn mountain it has an OS trig point on it.

To the east of Moel Siabod (872m tall)and a few hunderd metres north of Afon Ystumiau are two Bronze age cairns. The S.W cairn is 16m across and almost 2m tall with a large stone cist at it’s centre, the N.E cairn is slightly smaller at 9.5m across and only half a mtre tall, but also with a cist at it’s centre.
A little to the north are some perhaps related Bronze age hut circles.

300m from Llanafon farm stands this long mound on a west facing slope at 180m above sea level. The nortern end of the mound has been damaged by ploughing, but still measures 18m x 10m and 2.5m tall.
Lithic scatters were found all around dating from the Mesolithic to the Bronze age. The large Neolithic settlement of Dorstone hill is just 4.5 km to the S.E .

Dunseal longbarrow is intact and unexcavated, it stands 175m above sea level,and measures about 27m x 14m and 2m tall.
The barrow marks the eastern extent of neolithic activity and the south eastern extent of the Black mountains group .
Date of construction is unknown but its position on a narrow ridge with panoramic views is suggestive of late neolithic/early bronze age.

The Stiperstones is a very impressive ridge running NNE/SSW, along the ridge are a number of Quartzite outcrops, the Devils chair and cranberry rocks and the highest peak Manstone rocks is 1750 ft high.
Dotted along the ridge are a handful of cairns some easy to spot others not so easy the biggest is about 6ft tall

Two limestone caves that when cleared and explored between 1883-87
produced flint tools and animal bones

A sandstone block measuring 2m high, 1.3m wide and 0.4m thick standing in a field bank. The top of the stone exhibits some weathering. There are four cairns nearby one has a 0.6m depression containing an embedded slab, possibly the remains of a cist.

Taken as gospel from Coflein.

The sight of an alleged stone circle, but the many boulders strewn across the hillside may just be a fortuitous arrangement.
The standing stone is located on a south-west facing slope on the crest of the hill, positioned on a slight terrace 3m across cut into the hillside. The stone is local pale quartzite and measures 1.3m high, 0.9m wide and 0.6m thick, at the stones summit it tapers to a point.

Coflein says it is currently of unknown period and 2.2 metres high.
When I tried to visit there was no easy access, and a lane heading towards it was on private property with ‘tresspassers will be prosecuted’ signs. I gave up and went to Battle Menhir instead.

Coflein says, “A cairn 8.0m in diameter, 0.2m in height ,contains what is thought to be the capstone of a large cist or burial chamber, this stone (the Carreg) measures 3.9m x 2.1m and is 0.5m thick”.

Coflein says only this:

A centrally disturbed barrow 21m in diameter and 2.2 m high.

Located to the west of Ceiriog forest carpark.

There are three standing stones here, the one to the N.W is 1.5m high, the other two are 150 metres S.E one is 2.2 metres and 2 metres away a smaller stone just 0.8 metres tall, Coflein says that this pair has been interpreted as the remains of a burial chamber but there is no cairn or anything else to indicate that they’re anything other than standing stones.
Located to the west of Usk reservoir in extremely dense new forest ,a mile there and back from the car with Sciatica saw us give up pretty soon, along walk with no guarantee of finding them,on this day anyway.