On a farm within this parish [Llangeinwen] there was, within these few years, a large stone pillar, which was probably one of those called Meini Gwyr, by Rowlands. It was about twelve feet high; but when the present farm-house was built, having no fear of antiquarian anger before their eyes, it was blasted, to make lintels for the doors and windows. The name of the farm, Maen Hir (the Long Pillar), however, preserves its memory.

Craig y Deryn (Craig Aderyn) is a most picturesque and lofty rock, about three or four miles up the vale of the Dysynni. It is so called (the bird's rock) from the numerous birds which nightly retire among its crevices: the noise they make at nightfall is most hideously dissonant, and as the scenery around is extremely wild and romantic, the ideas engendered by such a clamour in the gloom of evening, and in so dismal and desolate a spot, are not the most soothing or agreeable. Towards twilight some large aquatic fowls, from the neighbouring marsh, may be seen majestically "wending their way" to this their place of nocturnal rest.

The Dol Yr Orsedd Stone.
To the Editors of the Archaeologia Cambrensis.
Gentlemen, -- About 35 or 40 years ago, when the Mold and Wrexham turnpike road was being made, it was found necessary, in order to give it the width required by statute, to remove a venerable Maen Hir, which stood in a meadow called Dol yr Orsedd, near Pentre hobin, about one mile and a quarter from Mold.

At its base a dagger and some human bones were found, which were then taken possession of by the late Mr. Matther, owner of the meadow. I was recently informed by this gentleman's widow, that the dagger measured about 5 or 6 inches in length, and that it was appropriated by some person unknown several years ago. Mrs. Matther kindly gave me the bones, requesting that I would bury them. They were enclosed in paper, which had an endorsement in Mr. Matther's hand-writing, stating that by supposition they were the bones of a British warrior.

The stone now lies prostrate, close to the hedge at the north-east corner of the meadow. It measures about 9 feet in length, and appears to have been sunk about 3 feet in the ground. It is of quadrangular form, measuring in breadth about 2 feet across the part which was inserted in the ground, and above that part, about 2 1/2 feet, and in depth across the part which was inserted in the ground about 1 1/2 feet, and above it about 1 foot. The part of the stone which was buried in the earth appears to have been roughly splintered or chiselled down, on two sides, thinner than the rest.

.. W.W. Ff.

..This maenhir cannot now be traced, and it is believed to have been broken or removed many years ago. But it may be remarked that in the adjoining meadow west of Dol yr orsedd is a limestone gate post of unusual size, 4 feet 6 inches above ground, 2 feet broad and 16 inches thick. This may be the old maenhir of Dol yr orsedd, utilised to serve a different purpose, and it may have stood upon a low mound forming the "gorsedd" which gave its distinguishing name to the meadow. -- Visited, 12th June, 1910.

The barrow is, from North to South, 150 feet; from East to West 75 feet. This looks more like a designed proportion than the effect of chance. It has been immemorially known by the name of Fairy's Toote, and considered still, by our sagacious provincials, as the haunts of ghosts, goblins, and fairies. This may be deemed the electrical tremblings of very remote superstition. The idle tale travelled down through many an age, long, long after the cadavers from which it originated had ceased to be had in remembrance.

Desirous of obtaining stone for the adjacent roads, the proprietor ordered his workmen to see what the Toote was made of. They accordingly commenced their labours at the Southern extremity, and soon came to the stone D, which then was at A, with a considerable West inclination, and no doubt served for a door to the sepulchre, which, prior (and in some cases subsequent) to Christianity, was the common mode of securing the entrance of these repositories. Such was that which was placed at the mouth of the cave wherein our blessed Saviour was interred.

The stone D being passed, an admirable unmortar'd wall appeared on the left-hand, and no doubt a similar one after the dotted line on the right once existed, as we find it in the same direction at F. This wall was built of thin irregular base freestone, less in length and breadth, but in general thicker, than common Dutch chimney tile. Its height was somewhat more than four feet; its thickness about fourteen inches. Thirteen feet directly North from A (where the stone D stood) the perforated stone B appears, inclining to the North about thirty degrees, and shutting up the avenue between the unmorta'd walls.

-- Working round the East side, at I a cell presented itself, two feet three inches broad, four feet high, and nine feet from South to North. Here were found a perfect human skull, the teeth entire, all sound, and of the most delicate white; it lay against the inside of the stone B, the body having been deposited North and South. Several other pieces of skulls, human spinal joints, arm bone, &c. were found herein; and particularly the thigh bone of a very large quadruped, which, by comparing with the same bone of an ox, I conjecture to have belonged to an animal of that species. As the skull appeared to me larger than common, I was willing to form some conjecture of the height of that body to which it belonged, and applied my rule to it, taking the painter's datum, of allowing eight faces (from the hair on the forehead to the chin) for the whole, found it gave something more than eight feet. With this the length of the sepulchre agrees, being, as was before observed, nine feet. In this cell was also found the tooth of some large beast; but no one that has seen it can guess of what genus.

At the termination of the first sepulchre, the horizontal stones in the top of the avenue had fallen down. With some difficulty, and no little danger, I obtruded far enough to see, by the light of a candle, two other similar catacombs, one to the right, the other on the left side of the avenue, containing several human skulls, and other bones; but which, from the imminent hazard of being buried in the ruins of the surrounding masses, have not yet been entered. This, as far as it goes, is a true account of the discoveries at the Southern extremity of the tumulus.

The lateral section at G has afforded as yet nothing more than a view of the unmortar'd wall, seen in the Southern extremity at H, and here at F, with the continuation of the central avenue seen at B, and here from C to C. This avenue is constructed of very large rock fragments, consisting of three stones, two perpendicular and one horizontal, as may be seen in the representation E. Three cells are here discernible, two of which are on the West side, and one on the East; these also have human bones. The proprietor means now to proceed from B to CC, propping up the avenue with wooden posts, in the same manner in which our miners do in their adits, to the lapis caluminaris veins. This mode will give the visitor an opportunity of seeing the different cells with safety and convenience.

I have only to add, that the tumulus is formed of small whitish stone, of which the neighbourhood affords plenty; and that the exterior appears to have been turfed, yet there remains a stratum, five or six inches deep, of grassed earth on the stones. The view I took on the spot, in one of the sneaping[*] days of the last rigorous season. I can therefore say nothing for it, but that, if it be not a good drawing, it is a true representation. When the central avenue is cleared, I purpose to send you the ichnography. ...

The Whetstones (6 in. Ord. Surv. sheet, Mont. 31 S.E.; lat. 52 34 18, long. 30 1 42). Owner, the Earl of Powis, Powis Castle, Welshpool; occupier, Mr. Jacob Ellis.

At the foot of the northern slope of Corndon Hill, and close to a stile on the south side of the road near the turning to Cliffdale mine. It is certain that at this place there once stood a circle of eight or nine stones. An intelligent man named John Jones, aged 74 years, and a resident in the vicinity since his youth, remembers four stones arranged as though forming parts of a circle, with an appendage of four or five other stones extending in a curve "like a hook." About one hundred yards distant was a cairn, the foundation of which is still discernible. The land was then unenclosed, but on its enclosure the cairn and the circle were rifled to provide stone for the construction of the existing fence. Mr. Jones pointed out the four stones which had been members of the circle.

The Rev. C. Hartshorne's account of this circle in Salopia Antiqua, 1841, p.33, gives a slightly different account of the stones. He observes "these three stones [The Whetstones] were formerly placed upright though they now lean, owing to the soft and boggy nature of the soil. They stand equidistant and assume a circular position... The highest of these is four feet above the surface; one foot six inches in thickness, and three feet in width."

Only one stone is now to be found, embedded in the ground close to the stile entering the field, and this is so small that it is not likely to have formed one of the stones of the circle, or it must be a mere fragment of a larger mass. Close by, but within the borders of Shropshire, is the still perfect circle called Mitchell's Fold. -- Visited 29th August, 1909.

Brent Tor was fortified in a manner very similar to Whit Tor; the outer wall has been much injured. In this instance it is not the summit, but the base of the hill that has been defended. As there is a church on the summit, as also a churchyard with its wall, these have drawn their supplies from the circumvallation. Moreover, it has been broken through to form a way up to the church.

A late curate of Tavistock, whose function it was to take the service on Brent Tor, and who found it often desperate work to scramble to the summit in storm and sleet and rain, resolved on forming a roadway to the churchyard gate. But he experienced some difficulty in persuading men to go out from Tavistock to work at this churchway. However, he supplied himself with several bottle of whisky, and when he saw a sturdy labourer standing idle in the market-place he invited him into his lodgings and plied him with hot grog, till the man in a moist and smiling condition assented to the proposition that he should give a day to the Brent Tor path. By this means it was made. The curate was wont to say: "Hannibal cut his way through the Alps with vinegar; I hewed mine over Brent Tor with prime usquebaugh." Few traces of this way remain, but in making it sad mischief was made with the inner wall of the fortress.

On Brent Tor summit it is sometimes impossible to stand against the wind. I remember how that on one occasion a baptismal party mounted it in driving rain. The father carried the child, and he wore for the occasion a new blue jersey. WHen the poor babe was presented at the font it was not only streaming with water, but its sopped white garment had become blue with the stain from the father's jersey.

On an occasion of a funeral, when the parson emerged from the church door he was all but prostrated by the north-west blast, and he and the funeral party had to proceed to the grave much like frogs. "Crook'y down, sir!" was the sexton's advice; and the whole company had to press forward bent double, and to finish the service seated in the "lew" of headstones.

According to popular belief the graves, which are cut in the volcanic tufa, fill with water, and the dead dissolve into a sort of soup. But this is not true; the rock is dry and porous. It discharges its drainage by a little spring on the north-east that in process of ages has worked itself from stage to stage lower down the hill.

Brandrith Craggs.
Hearing some time ago the above-mentioned appellation given to a ridge of rocks, situated on a mountain, overlooking a deep vale, about half-way betwixt Knaresbrough and Shipton, I was led to suppose the place had once been appropriated to Druidical superstition, in name manifestly implying the "fire circle."

.. On the highest part of one of these rocks is a smooth, regular, well-wrought bason, formed out of the solid stone, 2 feet in depth, and 3 1/2 feet in diameter. On each side of this is a smaller bason formed, each on a prominent point of the rock. A few yards from hence is a rocking stone, the irregularity of the figure making it difficult to ascertain the weight exactly; yet it may be reasonably supposed to weigh near 20 tons, and so equally poised, as to be moved with ease by one hand.

In Lhan Hammwich Parish, there is an ancient Monument commonly call'd Ty Ilhtud or St. Iltut's Hermitage. It stands on the top of a hill, not far from the Church; and is composed of four large Stones somewhat of a flat form, altogether rude and unpolish'd. Three of which are so pitch'd in the ground, and the fourth laid on the top for a cover, that they make an oblong square Hut, open at the one end; about eight foot long, four wide, and near the same height. Having entered it, I found the two side Stones thus inscrib'd with variety of Crosses.

I suppose this Cell, notwithstanding the crosses and the name, to have been erected in the time of Paganism; for that I have elsewhere observ'd such Monuments plac'd in the center of circles of stones, somewhat like that at Rolrich in Oxfordshire. And though ther eis not at present such a circle about this; yet I have grounds to suspect that they may have been carried off, and applied to some use. for there has been one remov'd very lately, which stood within a few paces of this Cell, and was call'd Maen Ilhtud; and there are some Stones still remaining there.

The Wye crosses the west angle of the County; and having its rapid course somewhat abated by the rocks it meets with, and its chanel discontinu'd, it suddenly falls headlong over a steep precipice. Whence the place is called Rhaiadr Gwy, that is, the Cataract or fall of the River Wye. [...] About two furlongs below [the Castle] I observed a large Tumulus or Barrow, call'd from a Chapel adjoyning, Tommen Iban St. Fred: and on the other side, at a farther distance, there are two more, much less than the former, called Krigeu Kevn Keido, vix. the Barrows of Kevn Keido, a place so call'd; where it is suppos'd, there stood heretofore a church, in regard a piece of ground adjoining is call'd Klyttieu'r Eglwys.

Bodinar Cave, called the Gyant's Holt.

In the tenement of Bodinar, in the parish of Sancred, somewhat higher than the present village, is a spot of ground amounting to no more than half an acre of land (formerly much larger), full of irregular heaps of stones overgrown with heath and brambles. It is of no regular shape, neither has it any vestiges of Fortification.

In the Southern part of this plot, you may with some difficulty enter into a hole, faced on each side with a stone-wall, and covered with flat stones. Great part of the walls as well as covering are fallen into the Cave, which does not run in a straight line, but turns to the left hand at a small distance from the place where I entered, and seems to have branched itself out much farther than I could trace it, which did not exceed twenty feet. It is about five feet high, and as much in width, called the Giant's Holt, and has no other use at present than to frighten and appease froward children.

As the hedges round are very thick, and near one the other, and the inclosures within them extremely small, I imagine these ruins were formerly of much greater extent, and have been removed into the hedges; the stones of which, appearing sizeable, and as if they had been used in Masonry, seem to confirm the conjecture. Possibly here might be a large British town (as I have been informed the late Mr. Tonkin thought), and this Cave might be a private way to get into or sally out of it; but the walls are every where crushed and fallen, and nothing regular to be seen;

I will only add, that this Cave, or under-ground passage, was so well concealed, that though I had been in it in the year 1738, yet, when I came again to examine it in the year 1752, I was a long while before I could find it.

About a mile to the north-west from the old Chapel is what is known by the name of the Poll-hill of Leask. On the highest point is a green mound, resembling a ship with the keel uppermost, and measuring upwards of 90 feet by 32. It terminates in a point at both sides.

[..] The late General Gordon had this curious mound walled in, and planted with trees for its preservation. The site, which was a favourite haunt, he called his "Observatory."

Contiguous to the Poll-hill there were numerous cairns and knolls, which were erased during cultivation, seventy years ago.

[..] Upwards of sixty years ago there was another prominent mound on the farm of Bogbrae, known as the Elfin-knap, of which many weird stories are still told. It was demolished in the process of reclaiming part of the farm, and in clearing away the turf from the top and sides, four stone pillars, upwards of four feet high, supporting slabs of stone, serving the purpose of a roof, were discovered. A large stone battle-axe was found in the bottom, embedded among charcoal, probably the war-axe and ashes of the chief whose interment the mound had been raised to commemorate.

During the months of March and April, 1877, five stone battle-axes and a stone ball were found in this neighbourhood, within a radius of a mile and a-half. Three of these were discovered by a lad on the farm of Bogbrae. He found the smallest one in a cairn of stones, carted from the farm to be broken into road metal, and believing their might be more on the same ground, he searched for and got [the] other two, and also a stone ball.

I enclose a sketch of what seems to be a cup-marked stone which I observed yesterday near Rhiwderin, Monmouth. Unless there be some operation which simulates such markings with which I am unacquainted, I take the specimen to add an instance of these mysterious prehistoric remains to the very short list given for Wales by Mr. Romilly Allen, and to be the first reported for South Wales.

The stone displaying the cup-markings is a mass of millstone grit, earth-fast, the slanting surface appearing above the turf being about a yard wide, and 4 feet long. Upon the upper half of the surface is a group of twelve cups from 1 1/2 to 2 ins. in diameter, and about 1 in. deep. On first noticing the cups they were taken for holes out of which quartz pebbles, abundant in the local millstone grit, had been weathered, but examination of the block showed that no pebbles of large size exist, or had existed in it, and the conclusion was arrived at that the cups are artificial. On turning back some of the turf covering the base of the slope of the stone, no other cups were discovered.

The stone lies within an old enclosure, as shown by wild apple-trees and an abundance of daffodils, and still more clearly by ruins, which seem those of a cottage or small farm near by. This contiguity to a habitation which does not seem to have been abandoned more than a century, made me suspect some medieval or more recent origin for the markings. I cannot, however, account for them otherwise than by supposing them to be cup-markings in the technical archaeological sense.

"Footprint" at Morlagganmore. -- Morlagganmore is a farm on the south side of the river Lochay, less than two miles above Lochay Bridge, and just opposite the Falls of the Lochay. About 100 yards north of the farmhouse, and 10 yards west of the farm road, is an outcrop of rock bearing a curious "footprint" hole, 13 1/2 inches long, 6 inches wide, and about 6 inches deep, and narrowing downwards to 9 1/2 inches by 2 inches. It just took my heavily-booted right foot. A natural crack in the rock runs obliquely across it. There is not sufficient evidence in its appearance to determine certainly whether it is natural or artificial, but it looks artificial. It may be compared with the inauguration stones of chiefs and kings, described by Captain Thomas in the Proceedings, vol. xiii. p28.

Cup-marked Rocks at Morlagganmore (fig. 2). -- I was told of one of these by Mr Haggart, but the farm people did not know of its existence. It lies about 200 yards south of the house, in the middle of the uppermost pasture. It is a large block of quartz schist stuck thick with garnets, and bearing fifteen cup-marks, only one of which, 3 inches in diameter and 1 inch deep, is really well defined, and several of which are faint. The surface of the stone seems much eroded by weather.

About 100 yards south-west of it is another rock with one well-cut cup, 3 inches in diameter and 1 1/2 inches deep, and also a doubtful or faint one.

On the summit of a hill to the north-east of Elder-Valley is a large tumulus, called BOWLS-BARROW, which measure 150 feet in length, ninety-four in breadth, and ten and a half in height. It was twice opened by Mr. Cunnington, who found that its interior parts were composed entirely of white marl stone, to the depth of four feet and a half, below which was a ridge of large stones and flints, extending wider towards the base of the barrow. This was a floor of flints regularly laid, on which were deposited the remains of fourteen human bodies, thrown together promiscuously within the space of ten feet by six. Near the skeletons was a large cist, and at the east and west ends of the barrow were discovered several heads of oxen, but no charred wood or pottery.

What is remarkable, at the south-west angle of the camp there are three barrows: one of them, a large circular tumulus, fills the entire space of the inner ditch; and the other two are placed in the line of the inner rampart. These last, on opening, proved to be sepulchral; but no interment could be discovered in the other. They are all evidently of anterior date to the camp itself, and throw some light on the era of its construction: for, as Sir Richard Hoare observes,

"We still see them untouched and respected, and the ground taken from excavations near the large barrow to raise the rampart, rather than disturb these ancient memorials of the dead. I doubt if the barbarous Saxons would have paid such a tribute of respect to their British predecessors."