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 , Llangenfi

On the final day on Angelsey we visited Oriel Môn Museum and arts centre in Llangefni  To check out an art exhibition by Leonard McComb  . 

Leonard Macomb Collection

 The Golden  Man 

 Rock and Sea Anglesey 1983 , large canvas on back wall .

Seeing what else the muesuem had to offer . We enter a room which has an impressive collection of  Bronze Age and Iron Age tools and artefacts  .

Iron Age God Head aka Hendy Head , was discovered in the 1950s  at Hendy farm near Llanfairpwllgwyngyll . The bust is made of  quartz-rich red sandstone and stands at half a metre high . The top of the head is flat . A hole has been drilled through the mouth .Could  be where offerings or insence were placed .

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 Video - Hendy Head & Bronze Age & skeletal remains  .

Urns and Tools 

Winter Solstice Round Barrow's on Mynydd y Garth

 

(grid ref ST104835)

 I made plans to visit a 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 was waterlogged . 

It wasn't too hard to find an alternative ancient site .

 I have gone past Garth Hill hundred of times on the train so getting there is easy . I took the train  .. It was raining when I boarded and raining when I alighted .  It wasn't too long before  sun made an appearance as I was 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 my way up a steep bank onto a road . Which led  to a a mile long steep narrow mountain road , .. "it's a long way to the top if you wanna rock and 'roll' ..  

  I then hiked  up a dirt track that led 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 

Largest mound has a trig point attatched .Not nice ..

 

Plas Newydd Burial Chamber , Anglesey .

 

An impressive Chambered Tomb located on the grounds of an estate that 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 earth mound  that covered the Burial Chamber is long  gone  . 

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

 

  A 25 tonne limestone  capstone covers a 5,000 year old tomb . Tapered grooves visible on two sides are result of a method used to split off capstone . Wooden wedges were hammered  into deep man made holes drenched in water expanded and worked until chosen section snapped off . Genius !!! .  

The Capstone is supported by flat and short megaliths . This made the task of  getting a massive rock into position easier . 

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

 Burial Chamber was buried beneath an earth  mound . 

 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 ) . Iron Age village later occupied by Romans . The site covers an area over 1100 square metres , has a communal area, four rectangular buildings , two round huts and surrounded with  a 1.5 (5') metre by 1.2 m (4')  wall . .  

Din Llugwy is close to Capel Lligwy (Post 3 )  300 metres walk  west side of field . 

A narrow path leads through a small wood , wild garlic growing on both sides  .First iimpression . This  place is stunning .. !

The original inhabitants settled here around 200BCE . Thick walls encircling the settlement are said to be a weather shield rather than forifcation . Coins , pottery and glass and glass have been discovered here 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 ...