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Last year, after a long morning hacking through the jungle Indiana Jones style, I managed to 'rediscover' these lost barrows and can confirm that they are still there. Thankfully they were respected during the planting of the forest after the Second World War and lie in a large clearing at the summit. To access, take the forest track to SH9707959663 and look for the overgrown start of a footpath on the north of the track that runs up a tree furrow towards the summit. The Gorsedd Bran barrows have a place in the 19th century archaeological study of the uplands of Hiraethog. Sometime around 1850, three brothers working at the nearby Nantglyn quarry went up and looted the Gorsedd Bran barrows in search of ancient treasure. They then moved down the valley where the Llyn Brenig reservoir lies today and robbed a further four barrows. Their handiwork can still be seen as all the Gorsedd Bran barrows have large pits dug into their tops. Alas no treasure. However a prehistoric urn that the brothers found, which probably once contained the cremated remains of a Bronze Age chieftain or a loved member of his family, was exhibited at a meeting of the Cambrian Archaeological Society at Ruthin in 1854. Apparently this generated some considerable excitement amongst the assembled antiquarians and horses were immediately ordered. For several days they rode up to the Hiraethog to conduct the first scientific archaeological survey of the area. That first crude survey was the basis of subsequent investigations including Canon Ellis Davies' fine research in the early 20th century and the excavations in the early 1970s prior to the flooding of the valley to create Llyn Brenig. Today the many tastefully restored Brenig monuments can be viewed on the excellent Brenig Archaeological Trail. Highly recommended - the Platform Cairn is stupendous! Sadly Gorsedd Bran and the Brenig Archaeological Trail are under threat. Local wind farm developers Tegni have applied to construct a wind farm on the forested south east side of Gorsedd Bran. With massive turbines towering above, any ambience or 'spirit of place' around these scheduled monuments will be lost as well as any pleasure for walkers who like this beautiful area. If they are successful with their planning application Tegni are planning to clear the forest as part of the wind farm development. In that event I do hope that they will respect the lost barrows as the foresters did sixty years ago. I also hope that during construction they look out for any other undiscovered and significant prehistoric sites which almost certainly lie beneath the forest in this historic landscape. Location: Denbighshire, North Wales
The excavation revealed the original structure of the monument - a low clay mound surrounded by a close-set circle of large boulders and a 'skirt' of smaller stones. No burials were found in the cairn suggesting that it was a territorial marker. These days I am making the most of my visits to this area. If various pending windfarm planning applications are allowed, the field in which Brenig 47 is situated will be covered in wind turbines. The adjacent hill of Gorsedd Bran which itself has three fine Bronze Age tumuli will also be trashed and industrialised by another windfarm. Location: Denbighshire, North Wales
Recently (Saturday, 17th November 2007) I had the great pleasure of attending the Heather and Hillforts guided walk led by archaeologist Richard Hayman. Richard showed us some of the historical sites spanning the Bronze Age to the 19th century that he investigated last summer during an archaeological survey of the Clwydian Range commissioned by the Heather and Hillforts Project. Starting at the car park at Bwlch Pen Barras, we took the Moel Famau path before diverting to the remarkable Iron Age hillfort of Moel y Gaer perched on a spur overlooking the Vale of Clwyd. From there we descended to Nant y Ne for a well earned picnic stop. As we ascended again past Moel Dywyll up to Moel Famau, the weather cleared and we were blessed with magnificent views over the Vale from Rhyl and the sea to the north down to the mighty Berwyns to the south. Looking westwards directly cross the Vale of Clwyd, we could just make out the misty peaks of Snowdonia rising behind the brooding Clocaenog forest and the wild and beautiful Hiraethog. Unfortunately when looking west the eye is drawn to something that looks out of place. The very prominent 25 or so wind turbines at Tir Mostyn and Foel Goch stick out like sore thumbs and remind us that the Welsh Assembly, with their policy on renewable energy with its ill-considered bias towards onshore wind, have decided that another 80 or so even larger wind turbines are to built from Gorsedd Bran to the north to Wern Ddu to the south. Hmmm, I have a sinking feeling that the stunning view across the Vale from the Clwydian Range in five years time will resemble a hedgehog with spines of horrible white turbines telling visitors to North Wales that the remote and beautiful Hiraethog with its unique landscape, ecology and history has been sacrificed and is closed and is now an industrial site - so stay away. What a nightmare! Location: Denbighshire, Wales
A moated enclosure in the Dee Valley at Glyndyfrdwy is the site of the house of the last true Prince of Wales, Owain Glyndwr. On this site on 16 September 1400, Owain and a band of Welsh lords decided that the time had come to rid their land of the English who had persecuted and robbed the Welsh people since their defeat at the hands of Edward the First in 1282. Two days later they crossed over the hills to the Vale of Clwyd and razed Ruthin to the ground starting a glorious but doomed liberation movement that lasted over a decade. As well as being a hero, it seems that Owain had an interest in prehistory. There is a cup-marked stone just outside the moat on the eastern side. Location: Denbighshire, Wales
I was keen to see again the spot where significant archaeological finds were made during many years of excavation work; the first excavation was made by William Boyd Dawkins in 1872 and a more thorough investigation was made by Stephen Aldhouse-Green from 1978 to 1995. Bones of various exotic animals not now seen in North Wales including rhinoceros, bear, bison and leopard were found and dated to various stages of the Palaeolithic era. The most incredible finds were the discovery of the teeth of several individuals including a child together with an impressive range of stone tools. The human remains have been dated to around 230,000 BC, however these were not people as we know them. They were early Neanderthals, a branch of the human race which eventually died out and were superceded by us - 'homo sapiens' - commonly touted as a superior version of human but maybe only time will tell. The cave, perched on the limestone cliffs above the very picturesque valley of Afon Elwy, is fairly easy to get to. A short path from the road below the cave takes you the ten metres to the entrance, although at first it requires a short scramble up a steep bank. The first thing I noticed was that the entrance was sealed by a modern wall with a very large steel door which was slightly ajar. Through the gap I could see another steel door immediately behind which appeared to be locked. This site was evidently 'closed' to the public. After a few minutes looking around and soaking up the atmosphere, I thought 'I wonder', and gave the massive steel inner door a push which to my surprise creaked open. On closer inspection it seems that someone had sliced through the both the padlock and three inch wide steel bolt with what must have been a heavy duty industrial piece of cutting gear. Now who on earth would do that? This was obviously not an 'official opening' of the cave but would cavers or pot-holers really go to such trouble to get in? A mystery indeed! Judging by the pieces of cut steel lying around, entry had been forced in recent years rather than decades ago. Well their vandalism was perhaps my opportunity so I stepped gingerly though the doorway and was immediately confronted by another modern wall with steel door four metres into the cave. Again I pushed open the steel door, whose locks were also cut, and the cave passage was revealed. Fortunately I did not have a torch with me as I am sure that I would not have resisted the strong urge to go in and explore, probably not a good idea without the correct safety equipment. Instead I stood in the doorway and gazed into the gloom for a minute imagining the 'rhino barbies' and other goings on here 230,000 years ago, took some photos then left, closing up as best I could behind me. Pontnewydd Cave Finds Location: Denbighshire, Wales
The Eglwyseg Kerb Cairns are situated on the plateau above the spectacular limestone cliffs of Creigiau Eglwyseg to the north of Llangollen in an area rich with prehistoric remains. These small cairns lie side by side and are made up of large boulders forming rings only a few metres in diameter. Originally they might have had piles of smaller stones within the rings but no evidence of this exists today. Close to the kerb cairns there is a barrow, a large stone cairn with cist visible, a cairn circle and a fine standing stone. Location: Near Llangollen, Denbighshire, Wales
The barrow was fully excavated and restored in 1973 during the massive archaeological investigation of the area made prior to the flooding of the valley. A large grave pit was found on the ground surface at the centre of the barrow. Only one small fragment of bone was found in the pit however signs of disturbance at the top of the mound and the discovery of an 19th century plasterer's trowel in the grave indicate that the barrow was robbed many years previously. The size of the grave pit suggests that it contained an inhumation burial which would make this barrow unique at Brenig as all the other funery sites contained cremation burials. Interesting features of the internal structure of the barrow were also detected. Three concentric circles of wooden posts were found. The outer circle which defined the circumference of the mound was erected some years earlier than the inner circles and may have been built to demarcate and reserve the area for future ritual use. The inner circles had evidence of wicker fencing. These fences may have been erected to aid the laying of the turves which formed the bulk of the mound and keep shape and form during construction. The barrow was finally covered with a layer of yellowish clay no doubt for visual effect. Although no carbon dating evidence was obtained for this site, it is thought that the barrow's prominent position in the Brenig Ritual Landscape makes it one of the earlier monuments built around 2000 BC. Location: Denbighshire, Wales
A pot containing of the cremated bones of two people and a bone pommel were found underneath the ring near the southern inner edge. Another cremation of a child aged about 11 years was found in a pit within the central space of the ring. Despite these burials, the monument was probably ceremonial rather than funery in nature. Later modifications to the cairn were the filling with stones of the central area to form a complete circular platform and a small cairn built against the north east edge in which a pot containing charcoal was found. The construction of the cairn has been dated to around 1800 BC which puts it in the middle of the 400 to 500 year span of Bronze Age monument building at Brenig. Archaeologists also found evidence for a settlement underneath the cairn. This may have been a permanent or summer residence of the community who created the Brenig Ritual Landscape or maybe a camp used by the builders of the earlier barrows and ring cairn. Platform Cairns are generally distinguished from Ring Cairns by virtue of the large width of the stone ring relative to the size of the central space. In North Wales another fine but unrestored example with a quartz kerb can be seen below Moel Ty Uchaf. Be (very) prepared when first visiting Brenig 51. I have personally witnessed gasps of amazement from even hardened antiquarians when first spying this beauty! Location: Denbighshire, Wales
The Brenig 8 cairn was excavated and restored in 1973 just before the Brenig valley was flooded to create the reservoir. Originally it was a stone-pile cairn with the neat kerb of large boulders which are visible today. A very large pit containing a small amount of cremated bone was found dug into the bedrock beneath the cairn. No radiocarbon datings were obtained from this site but flints and other discovered artefacts suggest that it was built in the Bronze Age. Brenig 8 is part of the many barrows and cairns of various styles which comprise the extraordinary Brenig Ritual Landscape. Location: Denbighshire, Wales
The Tir Mostyn Kerb Cairns were only discovered in the 1970s. A cremation burial was found in the northern cairn (B) when excavated by the esteemed Frances Lynch. Although close to the incredible Brenig complex, these cairns are thought to be the work of a different adjacent community, the 'folks over the hill' so to speak. Location: Denbighshire, Wales
This Bronze Age monument comprises of a 20 metres diameter circle of stones set into a bank surrounding a small low-lying tumulus. The antiquarian Canon Ellis Davies reported that in 1919 the circle consisted of 18 or 19 stones. Sadly, when he visited the site in 1923, he found only 3 stones, the others having been carried off by 'roadmen'. However the deep stone holes of the robbed stones are plainly visible and even present a minor hazard if you are not looking where you're going! The site lies within an area of the Clocaenog Forest which has recently been cleared. Also the site itself has been tidied up and the undergrowth removed. Although still oppressed by the forest it is in better shape than it has been for decades. It is well situated (as usual) on the edge of a shelf above Nant Llyfarddu. A possible ancient trackway passes a few metres to the north of the circle. Location: Denbighshire, Wales
The closely set stones, all less than 1 metre in height, form a 12 metres diameter circle with possible entrances to the east and south east. The grass covered remains of a stone cairn with excavation / robber pit lies within the circle. The circle is not alone. Several other cairns including a quartz edged platform cairn lie down the hill to the south of the circle and a possible 'ceremonial approach' lies on the other side of the hill on the northern slope. The circle sits above a Bronze Age trackway which continues eastwards across the Berwyn Mountains via Bwlch Maen Gwynedd to the Tanat Valley. A beautiful ancient site with very high picnic potential. Location: Near Llandrillo, Denbighshire, Wales |
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