The Sun Goes Down

 

Sun disappears for the last time in 2025 ...See you on the other side .. 

Happy New Year...

Leonard McComb and Bronze Age Artefacts at Oriel Mon , Llagenfi

One the final day on Angelsey we visited Oriel Môn museum and arts centre in Llangefni  . To check out an art  exhibition by Scottish artist Leonard McComb who spent a lot of time on the island .Interesting stuff a great way to spend a few hours 

 The Golden  Man 

 Rock and Sea Anglesey 1983  on back wall  30 m x 10 

Seeing what else the muesuem had to offer . I enter a room with a sublime collection Ancient stuff . Never seen Bronze and Iron Age artefacts up close before .

Iron Age God Head aka Hendy Head ...

...was discovered in the 1950s while ploughing a field at Hendy farm near Llanfairpwllgwyngyll on Anglesey., it was carved from quartz-rich red sandstone stands at half a metre high . The top of the head is flat . A hole has been  drilled through the mouth . The purpose is unknown .May have been where offerings were placed  .

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 Hendy Head & Bronze Age & Entombed  Female skeletal remains  .

Urns and Tools 

Winter Solstice Round Barrow's on Mynydd y Garth

 

(grid ref ST104835)

 I made plans to visit Roman Amphitheatre near Newport to mark this years winter solstice. Unfortunately a week of heavy rain put paid to my plans . The ground in and around the amphitheatre is waterlogged . It wasn't too hard to find an alternative ancient site . I have gone past Garth Hill hundred of times on the train getting there is easy .. It was raining when I boarded  and it was raining when I alighted . After a few heavy showers  .The rain stopped  I was on the road . The sun made an appearance  crossing over the river Taff .The other side of the bridge is where the mountain starts . I went through a short narrow tunnel  before zig zagging up a steep bank onto a road that led to a steep mountain road ,an uphill slog for a mile .... "it's a long way to the top if you wanna rock and 'roll' ..     And .. wasn't that long before I was hiking up a dirt track  from the base of the mountain leading to a plateau . From there I could see a large barrow a few hundred metres west . One of five that run along the 

summit of Mynydd y Garth .

Ruined barrow ..

Views in all directions are stunning 

The largest mound has a trig point on the top . Eyesore 

Plas Newydd Burial Chamber , Anglesey .

 

Impressive Chambered Tomb split into in two parts located on the grounds of an estate which once belonged to the Marquess of Anglesey . These days Plas Newydd , Country Park is looked after by the National Trust . The Burial Chamber sits on the brow of a hill 300 metres from the Menai Strait in a pituresque and well maintained setting . The day I was there the groundsman was mowing the grass around the Tomb .The mound of earth that covered the Burial Chamber has gone into the ether over the millennia . There isn't a trace of evidence in the Tomb in any form  . 

The smaller structure may have formed part of a passageway into the larger Chamber . 

Who knows ? 

A very cool place to spend an afternoon  ..!!

Roll Away The Stone . 

A large limestone rock a hundred metres from the chamber ..

Din Lligwy , Anglesey Lligwy Burial Chamber Lligwy trilogy Post 1

 

 5,000 years old Neolithic burial chamber with a huge 25 tonne capstone , one of the largest in the UK . The capstone was cut from larger limestone rock . Visible tapered grooves on two sides are the result of  wooden wedges being hammered  into man made holes , the wedge was then drenched in water to expand holes deep and wide enough to snap off chosen section .  The Capstone is supported by flat and short megaliths which would have made getting a massive rock into position easier . 

 Capstone is 18ft/5.5m long by 15ft/4.6m wide . 

 Burial Chamber was originally buried  beneath a mound of earth . 

 The tomb was excavated in 1908, human and animal bones , flint tools and pottery were among the finds .

Din Lligwy , Anglesey . Iron Age/Roman Settlement Llugwy trilogy Post 2 :

 

Din Llugwy (grid ref SH4970286134 ) is an Iron Age village which was later on occupied by Romans . The site covers an area over 1,100 square metres ,consiting of a communal area four rectangular buildings and two round huts surrounded by 1.5 (5') metre thick 1.2 m (4') high wall  .  Din Llugwy is close to Capel Lligwy (Post 3 ) 300 metre walk approx to the west side of field . Where there is a path through a small wood with wild garlic growing on both sides  .The original inhabitants settled here around 200BCE . The thick walls encircling the settlement are probably a weather shield rather than forifcation , the hilltop veiw would have been useful asset .These days the view down to  Lligwy Bay is obsured by a thicket of trees . Artefacts found here coins ,pottery and glass date from the late Roman period in the 3rd and 4th centuries .

Notched part of door frame , may be where timber placed across door on the inside was fitted . 

Lligwy , Anglesey .Post 3 : Capel Lligwy .

 

Anglesey is an interesting place to say the least .  On the last day we went  to a coastal area called Lligwy . We were there to visit three different ancient sites dating from the 12th century to the Bronze age  .

Quite a jump .

Capel Lligwy interior . 

 Large sandstone rock with chiselled out mortice to fit Cross .

 Steps leading to crypt

 

Church dates from the end of the Viking era ,when Nordic raiders began to settle on the island . Many converted to Christianity .These people must have built the  church ? .Sometime later the timber church was torn down to be rebuilt using stone .

Ruined Church .

Bryn yr Hen Bobl , Anglesey

 

Bidding adieu to Bryn Gelli Du , we trekked back to the main road . Plas Newydd Burial Chamber is next on the list two kilometres east along the main road . We opt for a slightly longer detour through woodland to a lesser known cairn 'Bryn yr Hen Bobl'  grid ref SH5188869 a stones throw from Plas Newydd . 

Heading east through woodland beneath tall trees and an abundance of flora and fauna . 

Wild garlic on both sides of the forest path . 

Exited the woods ,  path led into a stunning coniferous avenue a few hundred metres in length . 

Menai Strait in foreground . 

I kept thinking this area was sacred to the ancients .No evidence ..

Do you believe in magic ?

Cairn is positioned between two hills measures 40m x 30m x 5m high  

 Unseen Burial Chamber is bottom centre left .

Loose limestone used in the construction scattered over mound .

Panoramic view of mountain range , south east  . 

Capstone .

Burial chamber is as the bottom looking east over the Maenai Strait . 

 Bryn yr Hen Bobl , 'Hill of the Old People' was excavated from 1929 to 1935 where pieces of Neolithic pottery were found . 

Menai Strait Angelsey

The Menai Strait separates the island of Anglesey from Gwynedd, on the Welsh mainland . It was on this  stretch of water where a Roman Legion  refused to go across .So powerful was their belief in the dark magic of the Druids on the other side . 

 

Roman scribe/Historian Tacitus wrote 'Along the shore stood the enemy in a close-packed array of armed men interspersed with women dressed like Furies in funeral black, with streaming hair and brandishing torches. Round about were the Druids, their hands raised to heaven, pouring out dire curses. The Roman troops were so struck with dismay at this weird sight that they became rooted to the spot as though their limbs were paralysed and laid themselves open to wounds ' . 

 At the end of the day there was only going to be one outcome . 

. 'Bolstered by the encouragements of their commander and urging one another not to be afraid of this mass of fanatical women, they advanced with their standards, cut down all they met, and enveloped them in the flames of their own torches. After this a garrison was imposed on the conquered natives, and the groves devoted to their savage rites cut down; for it was part of their religion to drench their altars with the blood of captives and to consult their gods by means of human entrails.'

Summer Solstice 2025 Bryn Celli Ddu

 

Is there anybody out there . Thank you for your patience .

 

Last month I spent four days busing and hiking on the island  of Anglesey   , I could have hired a car  but the lure of free travel on the bus was too strong . I visited four amazing ancient spots .

 Today being a colossal day in the wheel of the year the only place to start is  with a   chambered tomb named Bryn Celli Ddu  grid ref SH50757017 . This is the second intact Neolithic burial site  I have seen on my travels . The other one is West Kennet Long Barrow  in Avebury  . Bryn Celli Ddu was opened , dicovered in 1699  . It's miraculous that such a magnificent structure is still here to marvel at the genius of the ancients  . Originally the site consisted of a henge with a stone circle set on the inside measuring 17 metres in diamater . Sometime later no one really knows when ,  a mound with a chambered tomb  inside it replaced the stone circle . Fint arrowheads, a stone bead, sea shells and human remains burnt and unburnt have been excavated . The centrepiece is a an 8 metre passageway leading to a small chamber with a standing stone within . The chamber and passage way are illuminated with the Sunrise on the Summer Solstice . Truly magnificent .

Passage leading to chamber .

 Tomb Guardian . Circular Blueschis stone pillar inside of chamber .

 Pattern Stone was placed outside the chamber .The original carved stone pillar has been removed for safe keeping .

Section of Stone Circle .

Snowdonia looking east from top of the mound .

Is anybody in ...