North and West Wales

The drive up to Tal-T-Fan is not for the faint hearted, but on a day when there is only 10m visibilty you really start to question your sanity. However, we'd promised to meet some friends so up we went.

fig. 5 : Bwlch-y-Ddeufan

Our friends were planning to walk around the mountain from the north, but somehow I didn't think they'd do that in this weather and knowing that they'd see our Irish registered car and know we were about we decided to have a look around ourselves. All these sites lie along a prehistoric trackway later re-used by the Romans. We headed west to Bwlch-y-Ddeufan (SH 715 718) two standing stones that are usually dwarfed by the pylons and powerlines that go right over head. In the fog we could only here the buzz and crackle of the powerlines until we were right next to the pylon. The first stone you reach is a fantastic stone and looks just like the one Obelix used to carry around everywhere! (see fig. 5) The other is a rectangular sectioned stone about 1.8m tall and is right beside a pylon.

While walking to these stones you pass The Giantess' Apronful (SH 717 716) a flattened cairn just off the road. We walked right past it and only just found it on the way back to the car. When we got back to the car a cup of coffee seemed like a good idea and while we were drinking that Howard and Ursula arrived. We finished our coffee while they went to the sites we had just been to and while they were away the fog lifted and the sun shone down on us for the rest of the day.

fig. 6 : Cerrig Pryffaid

To get to the other monuments you head east from the car park along the road and then along the old trackway again. A little way down the road is Cerrig Pryffaid stone circle (SH 724 713). With the fog now lifting the full power of the views weren't quite revealed to us yet. Standing in this circle I was very much reminded of the Tyrone stone circles with their low stones and tangential stone rows (see fig. 6).

fig. 7 : Ffon-y-Cawr

The walk from this stone circle is downhill and this took us below the fog, which would later go completely, and into the views. The first monument along the track is the Ffon-y-Cawr standing stone (SH 737 717).

fig. 8 : Unnamed Stone

This pillar is said to have been thrown by a giant from the nearby hillfort at Pen y Gaer. He had left his sheep on the hill but his dog had crept off for a sleep and the giant was trying to wake him up. This explains the angle of the stone (see fig. 7).

On the opposite side of the track is an unnamed stone inside a ring ditch. This may once have been part of a burial chamber (see fig. 8).