Stone Rows and Stone Pairs

by Martin J Powell

Six stone rows, one avenue and two stone pairs are located within the South Wales region comprising Glamorgan, Gwent (Monmouthshire) and Brecknockshire (south Powys).

A seven-stone row at Saith Maen NW (SN 835 154) near Craig-y-Nos castle is aligned NNE-SSW and has no obvious astronomical significance. It points along the valley towards the Cerrig Duon circle, some 3.4 miles (5.5 km) to the NNE, so in prehistoric times it may have served as a directional marker. The most northerly site in the study area is also called Saith Maen, situated South-west of Llanwrthwl (SN 949 603). It comprises eight small stones (not seven, as the Welsh name implies) aligned East-West over a length of 24½ ft (7.5 m). Professor Alexander Thom proposed an Easterly alignment to the star Procyon in 1660 BC, and a Westerly alignment towards the equinoctial sunset (Thom, 1967, pg. 101, Burl, 1993, pg. 240). A third site by the name of Saith Maen SE on Y Wern mountain (SN 861 146) has often been described as a stone row, but the Royal Commision considers it to be a natural boulder (RCAHMW, 1997, pgs. 161, 180).

The three-stone row of the Harold's Stones in Trellech village is the most visually impressive of the alignments in South Wales. In this assessment, the alignment is studied towards the North-east, however other reseachers have also considered the alignment in the opposite direction. Fred Hando suggested that they might be aligned on the midwinter sunset, and this was re-enforced by Burl (Burl, 1993, 256-7) who gave it an azimuth of  ca. 229º and a resulting declination of -23º.5.

Three stone rows in South Wales are located alongside stone circles. In a remote valley in the Brecon Beacons, a small double row of converging stones (technically an avenue) leads uphill towards the Cerrig Duon circle.  Six miles (9.6 km) further North, on Mynydd Bach Trecastell, a row comprising at least seven small stones hides in the bracken beside the two Trecastle Mountain circles. In Gwent, two monoliths known as "The Pipers" stand next to a ruinous stone circle on the southern slope of Gray Hill. Further details of these three sites can be found on the stone circles page.

The Royal Commission lists a further two stone rows in the Brecknock (Powys) region, both of which are located on the North-west facing slope of Mynydd Llangynidr, North of Tredegar (RCAHMW, 1997, pg. 158). The Pant Serthfa row (SO 118 167) is 19½ ft (6 m) long, aligned North-South and comprises four stones. Carreg Wen Fawr y Rugos (SO 132 175) is the same length, is aligned NW-SE and comprises five stones. Neither of these rows have yet been studied in an astronomical context.

The two stones at Cefn Cribwr near Pyle (SS 873 826) stand in marshy ground and at the time of the author's last visit (1990) they were not intervisible because of intervening trees. There are a number of partly submerged boulders lying close to the Western stone which may have once formed an alignment, or even a stone circle. The Royal Commission suggests they might even be boundary markers from recent times (RCAHMW, 1976, pg. 123). Just across the border in Carmarthenshire, two stones on Mynydd Myddfai beside the Usk reservoir (SN 806 284) are far apart and they may not have originally had any intended relation with each other.

Finally, a brief mention should be made of a pair of stones in a field at Cae'r-hen-Eglwys near Laleston in the Vale of Glamorgan (SS 875 809). They are often said to be a prehistoric structure, but they are in fact gateposts from a former churchyard (Llewellyn, 1895).

Survey Results (Explanation of Data Table)

Stone Circles in South Wales
Neolithic Tombs in GLA and MON	Round Cairns and Round Barrows
Neolithic Tombs in BRE and HRF	Enclosure Monuments

BIBLIOGRAPHY

BURL, Aubrey

1993    From Carnac to Callanish: The Prehistoric Stone Rows and Avenues of Britain, Ireland and Brittany, Yale University Press (New Haven & London).

HANDO, Fred J.

1944    The Pleasant Land of Gwent (R. H. Johns Ltd., Newport).

LLEWELLYN, R. W.

1895    Archaeologia Cambrensis (The Cambrian Archaeological Association, Cardiff), pgs 325-6.

ROYAL COMMISSION ON ANCIENT & HISTORICAL MONUMENTS IN WALES

1976    An Inventory of the Ancient Monuments in Glamorgan Vol. 1. Pre-Norman, Pt. 1: The Stone and Bronze Ages (HMSO, Cardiff).

1997    Brecknock: Later Prehistoric Monuments and Unenclosed Settlements to 1000 A.D. (Sutton Publishing Ltd., Stroud).

THOM, Alexander,

1967    Megalithic Sites in Britain, Oxford University Press (Oxford).

Copyright Martin J Powell 2001, with minor revisions April 2006

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