Mountains Hills and Valleys

Pen Y Fan

                                      

Corn Du  

Corn Du Winter Solstice 2019

Corn Du the final push ...breathless  ..

Winter Solstice 2019

Corn Du Cairn (SO00752133)  

Getting to  the top of Corn Du in the Brecon Beacons has been on the to do list for a while .Finally got round to it this week . Took the train to Merthyr  and T4 bus from there to Storey Arms , 

arriving 9.45 .It's a lovely December morning the sun is threatening to make an appearance .  A few people were mulling around  the car park . I walk up to a wooden gate go across the footbridge over the river  . On the other side  Corn Du comes into view the summit is covered in snow . The uphill hike isn't that difficult , adrenaline  ? . I get to the the turning off point on my map Bwlch Duwynt (windy pass)  a lot quicker than I anticipated .  Pausing  for a drink and taking in the spectacular view of the Neuadd Valley ahead  over  snow covered peaks , below me  down in the lush green fields  fog hangs listless over the top's of  trees .

The summit of Corn Du is 500 metres away East to my left  . 

I walk up the a well trodden path that disappears under thick ice . The summit is 50 metres away there's a bit of climbing up and over large slabs of old red sandstone that have been here since the Devonian period 419.2 million years ago . Slippery  than an ice rink . Camera in one hand holding on with  the other  ..

  The Bronze Age Cairn is set on the eastern edge in a spectacular setting .The cairn has a 12 metre diameter . An excavation in 1978 revealed the remains of complex  cyst . Excavated again in 1991 a bronze brooch and spearhead were found inside the chamber  . 

Cairns were used by the living to carry out rituals .Mountains were revered by the ancients  99% of the  cairns I have visited  in the Rhondda uplands are in full view of Corn Du  / Pen Y Fan . 

What a day ..   

...for Rhian 

Rained in Llantrisant .

On a rainy day I went down  to Llantrisant  to see the  William Price exhibition at the Guildhall . On this day the hall was shut . Making the most it I had a wander around the town . It's a very interesting place .


Llantrisant Castle (ST04753834)

The ruins of Llantrisant Castle in parkland  a stones throw from  the Guildhall  . Built in 1246  , not much of  it remains  .The castle was attacked  by Madog ap Llywelyn during the Welsh revolt  in 1294  and  again in 1316 by Llywelyn Bren .  Legend has it ,  the castle was destroyed by Owain Glyndŵr in 1404 .

 Tower wall .

 Archdruid William Price 

Bull Ring / Town Square .

Bull - baiting was held in the town square  the 'sport ' was curtailed in 1847 due to disorderly behaviour  .

    Commemorative plaque granting of  ownership rights to the people of Llantrisant in 1346  .

“Know that we of our special grace have granted, and by this or present charter confirmed, to our beloved Burgesses of our town of Llantrisant that they and their successors should be free throughout all our domain, both in England and Wales and that they should have the same liberties as they were accustomed to have in the time of our ancestors, as our Burgesses of Cardiff have by our grant so that they should be free with their merchandise within our said domain and elsewhere ''.

 Head Doctor 

                                                     

Cefn Esgair Carnau Cairn

Cefn Esgair Carnau Bronze Age  Round Barrow  (SN972132)

Spotted this cairn on my travels  cycling along the A409 between Penderyn and Pen Y Fan visitors centre .

The area is half a mile inside the Rhondda Cynon Taff county line a few hundred metres from the edge of the  road on moorland  at Cefn Esgair Carnau 

Cefn Esgair Carnau Bronze Age Round Barrow (SN972132)

Llech Llia Henge

Summer Solstice time  again doesn't time fly . The sun was out   I cycled over to to Sarn Helen ,Brecon  to visit the site of a Bronze Age henge known an Llech Llia (SN92321896 ). The  henge sits  on the  brow of a small hill 300 metres approx North/ North West of Maen Llia     . The outer bank is 19.2m in diameter and 2.7 m wide . The inner bank is 13m x 3m wide .   Some bright spark laid  a drainage ditch near the South/South West edge of the henge  cutting  through the outer ring  .   

Summer Solstice

                  St Lythans burial chamber dolmen South Wales .

Mynydd y Glogg (part 2 )

I haven't been able to get out much lately due to work and bad weather .  So in the meantime here's a film of a site I explored  last year   ..


Thee cairns on top of Mynydd y Glogg (SN97430899 )  near Penderyn ...

Mynydd y Gelli Stone Circle

Mynydd Y Gelli (SS975942)  aka 'Rhondda Stonehenge'


Mynydd Gelli / Rhondda Stonehenge first thoughts are ... Stonehenge it isn't . Not today anyway* .

  My journey stars with a four mile mountain bike ride up the Bwlch  Mountain from Treorchy . The heavier bike means it's  a slog , seeing Graig Fawr up close takes my mind off  the gradient  . When I reach the  top I go to the far side of the car park to the green barrier . Heading  up the hill . Thankfully the  track levels off after half a mile.  . I get on the   Mynydd Ton forestry road three miles on this road  I stop  above Clydach Vale . The site at  Mynydd Gelli is a further mile away . Half an hour from the Bwlch . On arrival  site I take in the view  the upper  Rhondda is laid out in front of me , sun is out on a clear day I can even see  the Iron Age Settlement  at Hendre Mynydd on top of the Rhigos six miles away .  After a drink and a  snack I am ready to see what Mynydd Y Gelli has to offer...

Graig Fawr

Lone standing stone set  below the stone circle  . Lots of  cairns on these hills . Despite the vast amount of rock/boulders in the land . There aren't many/any Monoliths in the Rhondda . It's a mystery to me ..!

One of a number of small cairns twenty yards west of the stone circle .

Cairn

   Mynydd William Merrick left of picture

.

Round Barrow outline close to  boundary fence .

The stone circle /kerb cairn has nine - two feet high stones . These stones surround a small burial cairn with an open cyst  . The cairn is in a poor state* 

  😒. .
Mynydd Gelli / Rhondda Stonehenge  ....

 Stonehenge it isn't . Not today anyway* .
On reflection it is astounding there's anything here at all considering the upheaval in the valleys during the past 150 years .

*Excavation in 1903 showed that the stones were set upon a wall of laid stones, 1m - 1.5m thick. Three 'cyst-like structures' with traces of fire were set against the circle, and within it was a rifled cist 1.1m E-W by 0.8m by 0.6m deep, lined with slabs, now probably represented by a hole about 3.7m S of the centre .

Psychedelic vision ..  

Blue stones .

Green cairn/ cyst .

Rhondda Stonehenge Cairns

Mynydd Y Gelli   Stone Circle    (SS975942)

Stone Circle

Cairns 

Llyn Fawr

Llyn Fawr

Garn Fach

Garn Fach  SS957917

First field trip of 2019 I planned to get out a few weeks ago  had to cancel due to bad weather . On a lovely bright sunshine day last Thursday I was back up in the Rhondda uplands a few miles north of Clydach Vale  .

                         Bank on the northside may have been outer rim or kerb .

Garn Fach is three miles down the road from here .    

View from Mynydd Ton forestry road gate,  Crugyrafan ( SS920954) green dot and  Carn-Y-Hyrddod (SS91999339) are west of here .

Garn Fach