The Old Fashioned Antiquarian

The Lost Barrows of Gorsedd Bran

2007-12-20T17:18:49Z

On the ridge of Gorsedd Bran there are three magnificent Bronze Age tumuli. One is situated on the open farmland on the north west side of the ridge next to the public footpath. The other two are located in the virtually impenetrable forest that covers the summit and south eastern slopes of Gorsedd Bran. Hidden and surrounded by the forest, these monuments have been sadly neglected and lost to visitors for many years.

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
Grid Ref: SH96925975, SH97396025

Brenig 47 - The Neolithic Cairn

2007-11-29T15:47:58Z

The Brenig 47 cairn sits apart from the other monuments in the Brenig Ritual Landscape high on the pass north east of Llyn Brenig at Tir Mostyn. It is also the oldest monument of those excavated before the Llyn Brenig reservoir was built. The carbon dating of charcoal found directly underneath the cairn gives a date of about 2600 BC which puts its construction firmly in the late Neolithic period and at least 500 years before the earliest Bronze Age barrows that lie further down the valley.

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
Grid Ref: SH98925804

Heather, Hillforts and Wind Turbines

2007-11-27T16:55:23Z

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
Grid Ref: SJ149617

Cae Coch Standing Stone

2006-11-12T15:27:42Z

The Cae Coch Standing Stone lies a short distance above the Roman Road about 300 metres to the west of the Maen y Bardd Dolmen. It is one of many standing stones along this stretch of the ancient trackway on the southern slopes of Tal y Fan.

Location: Conwy, Wales
Grid Ref: SH73557166

Llety'r Filiast Chambered Tomb

2006-10-07T18:32:47+01:00

The Neolithic tomb of Llety'r Filiast lies on the mighty Great Orme overlooking Llandudno, the 'jewel' of the fashionable North Wales Riviera. The Bronze Age Copper Mine, another of the prehistoric attractions of the Great Orme, is a stone's throw to the west of the tomb.

The monument consists today of a stone chamber which is possibly a portal dolmen and a 20 metres long mound which is the remains of the stone cairn that would have originally covered the chamber.

Location Conwy, Wales
Grid Ref: SH77218294

Owain Glyndwr's House

2006-09-23T08:13:34+01:00

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 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
Grid Ref: SJ12754309

Drosgl Cairns

2006-09-19T16:20:42+01:00

Two Bronze Age cairns, one very big and one very small, lie on the summit of Drosgl in the Carneddau Mountains of Snowdonia.

The cairns were excavated in 1976. Two cists were found in the large cairn, one containing cremated bone and a whetstone. The small cairn contained the cremated bones of a young woman.

The small cairn has been restored and has an interesting drum like appearance.

All round spectacular views are afforded from these mountain top monuments, northwards across Conwy Bay to Anglesey and southwards up to the mighty Carnedd Llewelyn and the high Carneddau peaks.

Location: Gwynedd, Wales
Grid Ref: SH66366802

Pontnewydd Cave

2006-08-26T19:52:08+01:00

Driving home down the Vale of Clwyd last Thursday afternoon, I took a short diversion to visit Pontnewydd Cave which I can vaguely remember visiting as a young lad with my father many years ago in the mid sixties.

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
Pontnewydd Cave at Wales Past

Location: Denbighshire, Wales
Grid Ref: SJ01507105

Hafodty Standing Stone

2006-08-13T13:01:35+01:00

The 2.4 metres high Hafodty Standing Stone lies in a field south of the track from the Sychnant Pass to Maen Penddu and Tal y Fan.

Location: Conwy, Wales
Grid Ref: SH74787496

Dyffryn Lane Henge Excavation Open Day

2006-08-12T20:00:54+01:00

Last Sunday (6 August 2006) I had the great pleasure of attending the open day for the Dyffryn Lane Henge excavation. This excavation is being carried out by the Clwyd and Powys Archaeological Trust and the University of Bradford Department of Archaeological Sciences under the direction of the renowned Dr Alex Gibson. It certainly was an eye-opener to see what lay beneath what appeared to be a flat field with no discernable man-made features when I visited the site along with the nearby Maen Beuno standing stone earlier in the year in March 2006.

Dr Alex Gibson together with Ian Grant and Abi from CPAT and all the excavators from Bradford University were very hospitable on this warm sunny day and kindly interrupted their work to show the prehistoric remains uncovered and share the many secrets that the excavation has revealed so far.

The Dyffryn Lane Henge is complex site consisting of three monuments which are interrelated but built many hundreds or even over a thousand years apart. The site is a 80 metres diameter henge (a circular ditch with an external bank created with the soil from the ditch) within which lies a stone circle and a round barrow. One of the prime objectives of the project is to determine when and in which order the three monuments were built.

Throughout the day Dr Alex and Ian took groups of visitors around the three main focus areas of the excavation which were the stone circle and barrow, the section though the ditch and bank and finally, three pits discovered in the south east section of henge.

The excavation reveals half of the stone circle with six stones and one large stone hole visible forming a perfect semi-circle. Undoubtedly further stones or stone holes are to be found in the unexcavated western half of the circle.

The round barrow, most of which has been destroyed by ploughing over the years, was 40 metres in diameter and sat directly over the stone circle. During excavation of the remaining lower layers of the barrow, a beautiful, finely worked barbed and tanged flint arrowhead of Bronze Age date was found by excavator Holly Crawford. Holly was at the open day and I must say that she was looking particularly pleased with herself as this treasure was shown to visitors. And so she should be - an incredible find!

The trenches dug in a previous investigation of the stone circle and barrow in 1857 by D. Phillips Lewis have also been found. The soil that he piled back into his trenches has been re-examined and small pieces of burnt bone have been found which confirms the reports that cremations were found in 1857.

The excavated section of the henge ditch shows that it was 2.1 metres deep and 5 metres wide. The outer bank built from the earth from the ditch was at least 1 metre and maybe up to 2 metres in height.

The building of this 80 metre henge was a major undertaking requiring a lot of hard work by a large workforce, a point made to me by excavator Rachel Stebbings based on the team's back breaking experience of digging out a small section again.

Three pits have been found on the eastern side of the henge. Two of the pits were dug into the bank and contained burnt hazel nuts which will provide vital radio carbon dating information. One pit was dug into the soil underneath the bank and therefore predates the henge. In this pit many fragments of Neolithic 'Peterborough Ware' pottery have been found.

Indeed, throughout the open day, bits of pot were literally flying out of this pit. It was a incredible experience to actually see an excavator retrieve a fragment from the ground, last seen about 5000 years ago, and to be shown the artefact seconds later. I was particularly taken by the rim of a pot intricately decorated with thumbnail marks.

Dr Alex gave us the latest thinking on the build order of the three monuments based on the site evidence so far before carbon dating and other post excavation analysis. The stone circle was built first in the Neolithic era. The barrow was built next and although the stone circle was respected by the barrow builders, it was completely covered by the barrrow. The barrow is of early Bronze Age date. The henge was built last encircling the two previous monuments. As henges are generally associated with the late Neolithic, this 'Bronze Age' henge might shake the tree a little bit and cause a rethink on this type of prehistoric construction.

Celebrity watchers might care to note that the very esteemed Frances Lynch, one of our foremost experts on British and Irish Prehistory and veteran of many excavations in Wales, was 'in the house' or more appropriately 'in the field'.

The current plans are for the stone circle to be covered up after the excavation and the field to be returned to the farmer. However Dr Alex did mention the possibility that CADW, as guardians of this scheduled monument, could and might buy part of the field and restore the stone circle. That sounds an excellent idea. And CADW, could you please reconstruct the henge at the same time? Now that would be something!

Please check the dig diary for all the latest data and news on this extraordinary excavation.

Dyffryn Lane Henge Project
Dig Diary

Location: Powys, Wales
Grid Ref: SJ20440140