(Click photos to enlarge)To the South West of Mynachlogddu in the foothills of the Preseli mountains lies the fantastic little stone circle of Gors Fawr. Looking at the spectacular scenery in the photo above you'd be forgiven for not noticing the stone circle (despite the sign saying its there) because most of the 16 stones making up the 22 metre diameter circle are under two feet in height and so the circle might not be immediately apparent.
If you are planning a visit to Gors Fawr it is worth bearing in mind that the land around the stone circle is quite marshy, so depending on time of year, you might want to wear the appropriate footwear (eg, Wellington boots). We visited on 27 December 2008 which was a glorious but very cold day. The ground was quite hard and frosty which made the terrain much easier to negotiate than perhaps it is at other times of the year.
To the north east of the circle lie two additional stones (pictured below) aligned to the Solstice, and one of these is known as the Dreaming Stone and allegedly has magnetic properties. I personally didn't experience any magnetic effects and my camera behaved itself (unlike the time I tried taking photos of the Rollright Stones in Oxfordshire and found that a good number were almost completely whited out).
Animal lovers will be interested to note that this is a good place to see some of the wild ponies that roam the Preseli mountains. I snuck up behind a tree and managed to get a lovely shot of this fellow in the photo below.
All in all I'd say that Gors Fawr was well worth a visit and is probably my favourite ancient site out of those we visited in Pembrokeshire over the last week.
Date visited: 27 December 2008
See also: Gors Fawr on The Modern Antiquarian
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment