Gwal Y Filiast, Carmarthenshire

(Click photos to enlarge).

The dolmem - or cromlech - of Gwal Y Filiast is quite well hidden away just outside of the small village of Llanglydwen in Carmarthenshire. To reach it you have to take a walk down a muddy track for about 10 minutes or so and take a turn into the woods.

It's very easy to get yourself lost whilst looking for this site. My father and I tried finding it one day during the Christmas holidays and ended up going too far and following the river and surrounding woodland for hours. We still managed to take a wrong turning today when we visited, although we knew the rough direction this time and soon got back on track.

Gwal Y Filiast - the name translates as Lair of the She-Wolf or Lair of the Grey Hound Bitch (not greyhound but grey hound - literally a hound that is grey - a wolf) - seems unusual for such a burial chamber being located in this setting beneath the trees.

The dolmen is at the epicentre of a ring a beech trees, while several other stones which may once have been part of the greater structure are scattered around the site. The dolmen itself consists of a huge capstone - easily 10 feet in length and 3 to 4 feet in thickness - balanced on four uprights, and there are a pair of smaller stones set in the ground at one end.

This is a really atmospheric site, which is in no doubt enhanced by its surroundings on the wooded slope above the river Taf. It is a little off the beaten track and is unlikely to be visited by casual tourists, who would be far more likely to head for somewhere better known in the general area such as Pentre Ifan. I think they are missing out! Remember to consult a map if you want to visit and wear walking boots or wellies!

Date visited: 31 May 2009.

See also: Gwal Y Filiast on The Megalithic Portal
Gwal Y Filiast on The Modern Antiquarian

The Rollright Stones, Oxfordshire/Warwickshire border

(click photos to enlarge).

Yesterday I visited The Rollright Stones in North Oxfordshire near to the village of Long Compton.


The stones are actually split over three separate sites:

The stone circle is popularly known as The King's Men and is thought to date back to late Neolithic or early Bronze Age. It is 33 metres in diameter and consists of about 70 stones.


It is said that you cannot accurately count the stones that make up The King's Men, as the total will be different each time. We tried this on a previous visit and indeed we had trouble deciding on a total - but part of the problem is deciding what constitutes a single stone where perhaps a stone has cracked or been broken, or else where what appears to be two stones might just be the same stone beneath the surface.



The Whipsering Knights (above) appear to be a small grouping of standing stones huddled together as if holding a private conversation; it is believed that this formation is the remains of a collapsed burial chamber. There are four uprights and a large recumbent stone which was probably the capstone. These are situated to the east of The King's Men and just a short walk away.


Finally, just over the road from The King's Men and over the county border too and into Warwickshire, is a lone standing stone called The King's Stone (above). It is a very peculiar shape, although this is partly because in the days before it had a fence erected around it vistors would chisel off chunks of it to keep as souvenirs!


In the past The Rollright Stones were one of the few ancient monuments that I have visited where you have to pay a (small) entry fee. I have absolutely no problem with this. The fee, of course, went to the upkeep of the site. There used to be a hut at the entrance where an affable old gentleman would take your entrance fee and would tell you about the stones should you have any questions. He would even lend you a pair of divining rods if your interests and beliefs lay in that direction.


But unfortunately we live in sorry times. The old man and the hut have gone. The old man has sadly died and the hut was burnt down by vandals. Vandals have attacked the stones on various occasions, covering them in yellow paint on one occasion, and burning them on others. Obviously, these acts of mindless destruction mean expensive and painstaking clean-up work. What I find most alarming is that these are not random acts of vandalism but that they must have been pre-meditated. Someone has specifically made the journey with the express intention of attacking the stones.


On this visit there was no-one collecting entry fees. I didn't even see a box for donations.I am hoping that the Rollright Trust and/or the Friends of The Rollright Stones have not thrown in the towel and given up. I thought they had been doing an excellent job. What other group of stones has its own website? I like that you can download an audio tour and play it on you iPod as you walk around the stones.

To sum up, this is a lovely site which needs your support.

Date visted: 17 January 2009

See also:

• The Rollright Stones Official Site
  
• The Rollright Stones: The King's Men on The Modern Anitquarian
  
• The Rollright Stones: The Whispering Knights on The Modern Anitquarian
  
• The Rollright Stones: The King's Stone on The Modern Anitquarian
  
• The Rollright Stones on Wikipedia
  
• "Summer Solstice at the Rollright Stones" on YouTube - Arthur "I am the god of hellfire" Brown investigates!

Carreg Coetan Arthur, Newport, Pembrokeshire

(Click photos to enlarge)

Here's another site in Pembrokeshire that I visited on one of the few days in July 2008 on which it didn't pour down with rain. Carreg Coetan Arthur is a Neolithic dolmen and is situated where you'd least expect it - next door to a couple of bungalows in a residential close in the small coastal town of Newport, North Pembrokeshire.


The juxtaposition of this ancient dolmen sitting amidst the 20th Century bungalows somehow seems to make it all the more magical. It's quite literally a little piece of our ancient history in someone's back yard!


To give you an idea of scale, in the next photo are my niece and nephew.


As you can see, it's nowhere as huge as Pentre Ifan, but it's still an impressive site and like that other dolmen its massive capstone seems to defy gravity, almost hanging in the air over the four upright stones.

Date visited: August 2008

See also: Carreg Coetan Arthur on The Modern Antiquarian.

Pentre Ifan, Pembrokeshire

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I'll start with what is perhaps the best known ancient site in the area of South West Wales, the dolmen known as Pentre Ifan which is to be found in the lower Preseli Mountains a few miles south west of Newport. (Note Carningli in the background of the above photo).

This is a popular site and is the one that everyone seems to know about despite there being a wealth of other fantastic sites seemingly peppered all across the county and most of which go practically unvisited. When we visited on New Year's Eve there were already three car-loads of people there plus some hikers. There were guys laden with the most expensive looking photographic equipment trying to take photographs whilst squadrons of small children bombed about the place, running in and out between the upright stones. Thankfully once the kids had left I was able to rattle off a few photographs of my own.

One of the reasons that Pentre Ifan is so popular with the tourist crowd is that it really is quite impressive. It is the tallest such monument in the region and the capstone almost seems to defy gravity as it seemingly balances on knife-edge points on three of the uprights.


Supposedly most of this structure was once covered over with soil with only the side in the above photo open to the elements. Some other stones are no longer in their original positions and can be seen scattered around the site.


The above photo was taken circa 1970/71 and shows that I too was once a small child who liked playing amongst the stones of Pentre Ifan whilst my Nana and sister pose nicely for the camera.

Date visited: 31 December 2008

See also: Pentre Ifan on The Modern Antiquarian