Dyffryn Ardudwy Burial Chamber

Neolithic burial sites can be found all over Wales, the UK and across Europe.

I have visited many of these sites and have posted information on them here such as

Maen Ceti (Arthur's Stone)   St Lythans Dolmen  Carreg Samson and Coetan Arthur

What makes the site at Duffryn Ardudwy different is that there are two tombs close together.

Visit Date May 2023

Click on any image to enlarge.

The two dolmens are just 30 feet apart within a much bigger mound.

The chambers were built sometime between 4000-2000 BC, probably as a communal burial site. The entire monument was probably originally covered by a mound of small stones.

Click on any image to enlarge

The investigation following the excavation seems to explain that there had been two different periods of construction at the site.

The Western Dolmen

First, the smaller, western, dolmen had been put up and surrounded by an oval cairn.

The Eastern Dolmen

Sometime later, a larger Eastern tomb was constructed with a trapezial design which was needed to combine both tombs.

Click on any image to enlarge

Today the site consists of an elongated oval, running up a slight slope, with one large chamber at the top eastern end of the slope and a smaller chamber beneath the branches of a tree at the lower western end. Beside the upper chamber is a solitary standing stone.

Dyffryn Ardudwy Burial Chamber

The site was excavated in 1961-2 by T.G.E. Powell. Although the tomb had been rifled, at the smaller dolmen a pit containing fragments of five Neolithic pottery vessels was found sealed by the cairn in front of the tomb.

This tomb has a small prehistoric cup-mark carved on one of its portal stones.

The Eastern Tomb

The second, larger megalithic tomb was built to the east and was set within a large, rectangular cairn which incorporated the earlier tomb. This later tomb produced both Neolithic and Bronze Age pottery.

Other finds included a fine, broken, stone pendant.

It was found necessary in 1961-62 to provide additional support for the great roofing stone on the eastern dolmen and a buttress was built on either side of the chamber for this purpose.

The Western Tomb

There is little doubt that the two tombs were built several generations apart.

Stones from this site have been used in the past as building materials and this is often the case at these sites but there is still a vast amount of stones around the site.

Dyffryn Ardudwy Burial Chamber

In his book, 'Guide to Ancient Britain' Bill Anderton writes that: “As part of an outbreak of light phenomena, columns of light were seen issuing from the ground here in 1905. 

The site stands on the Morchras geological fault.

Footer:Visit Information: -

Google Reference: -
52.78462455046947, -4.094379021652469

Google search term:
Dyffryn Ardudwy Burial Chamber

What Three Words reference: -
///bagpipes.genius.snowmen

OS Details: -
SH 58852 22835L : Altitude:141 ft

Additional information.

Visiting is very easy but parking close is not so.
First there is Station road parking (52.78834904037549, -4.097879713123781) this will be the closest and it is just a 500 metre walk back to the main road and down to the school where the marked path alongside the school takes you to the site.
Alternatively park opposite the community centre (52.78834904037549, -4.097879713123781) and the walk is just an additional 200 metres and you may then visit the friendly café in the community centre. Good coffee and a warm welcome.

A full list of blogs can be found at my website

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Tŷ Newydd Burial Chamber.

 

Tŷ Newydd burial chamber although ruined, is still a good example of a megalithic dolmen. 

Set on a natural outcrop it would originally have been covered with a mound or cairn 

now marked out by the small bollards that surround it.

Visit Date May 2023

Click on image for a larger version.

Ty-Newydd has a massive cracked capstone, about 4.0m by 1.8m and up to 1.2m thick, that rests on three of the four remaining uprights. The Capstone is likely to have originally been wider as part of the southern edge has broken off.

The chamber was originally part of a passage grave. One theory is that the tomb was originally similar to Bryn Celli Ddu (the subject of a later blog), with a second chamber joined to the first by a passage, and the entire tomb was covered by a large earth mound which was later removed.

Early reports claim that the second larger chamber existed close by, this has long since been broken up and carried away as has any surface evidence of a covering stone cairn so it is impossible to establish the original layout of the site although several small concrete markers around the chamber hint at the possible extent.

It is said to have once been enclosed by a circular wall about 32m in diameter and this may reflect the form of the cairn.

The huge tilted capstone is split and is now partly supported by brickwork and concrete. This does distract from the natural beauty of this site however one suspects that without this intervention the capstone would now be on the ground.

There is a photo in 'The Ancient Stones of Wales' by Barber and Williams, which purports to show Ty Newydd in 1900, with the capstone resting on 3 uprights, without all the modern brickwork.

The chamber was excavated in August 1935 by Charles Phillips.

There was a lot of charcoal, suggesting evidence of a large fire that formed this thick layer of charcoal as well as a quantity of quartz.

There were no human remains found at the site however the finds included five flint flakes, a burnt flint arrowhead, a small chip from a polished flint axe, and some small fragments of pottery. Phillips believed that the pottery fragments were from the Beaker culture, suggesting a Bronze Age reuse of this earlier Neolithic monument.

More recently, prehistoric artwork termed ‘cup marks’ have been detected on the capstone.

Footer:Visit Information: -

Google Reference: -
53.23592779682485, -4.482380635799995

Google search term:
I have had a few problems with google maps trying to locate the exact place by description so please use the google reference above.

What Three Words reference: -
///overgrown.broke.slings

OS Details: -
SH 34422 73862 Altitude:115 ft

Additional information.

Visiting is relatively easy.
There is a turn off to an unnamed road off the A4080
It traveling north the entrance to the field is on the right hand side and is has a ancient monument signpost and information board.
There is a small layby (53.23661829013594, -4.485084849839341).

There are no facilities here.

A full list of blogs can be found at my website

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Coetan Arthur

  

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C o e t a n  A r t h u r

Coetan Arthur (also known as Arthurs Quoit).

 A dolmen on the southwest coast of Wales 

on the St. Davids's head peninsular, 

in county of Pembrokeshire, Wales.

This impressive megalithic tomb dates from 

between 4000 to 3000 BC.

The dolmen, which is formed by two vertical 

megaliths erected to support a flat capstone,

is partially collapsed, but still impressive nonetheless.

Visit Date August 2022

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There are many ancient burial sites around the southwest of Wales

These burial sites are often marked with three or more uprights and a large capstone. Often this is all that is left of the site which would originally be covered with earth. This upright/capstone structure has been called a Dolmens or often also referred to here in Wales as a Cromlech, but my understanding is that Cromlech can also refer to a circular stone structure.

This structure should not be confused with Carreg Coeten Arthur which is also in Pembroke, and which will be covered in another blog soon.

The St Davids headland is full of ancient remains including signs of ancient field patterns, Neolithic enclosures, and defensive banks and ditches.

Perhaps the most impressive part of the burial chamber is the massive capstone, which is roughly 6m long and 2.5m wide. The upright stone supporting it (known as an orthostat) is about 1.5m high.

The site here overlooks Whitesands Bay at St. Davids and has a good view but is far enough from the main cliff not to be to battered by any storms that hit the coast.

It has been reported many visitors to the site that they found the site hard to find. I suspect that if you were only casually walking the coast path that this could be true but I found that the site could be seen from quite a distance when walking east to west which seems to be the most natural direction to be walking.

These ancient sites often have a legend attached to them and this one is no exception. The legend for Coetan Arthur states King Arthur himself chucked the stones from nearby Carn Llidi.

Note: The terms Dolmen, Cromlech and Quoit are often used to describe this sort of neolithic site.

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Visit Information: -

Google Reference: -
51.90450867492426, -5.308083153876568

What Three Words reference: -
///snowstorm.finely.deck

OS Details: -
SM 72527 28056 Altitude: 162 ft

Additional information.
Visiting is easy, head to Whitesands bay car park (51.897174093111616, -5.2940221280185105) this is a caravan and camping park and is easy to get to.

There is good facilities for the park, there is a charge for parking.

The walk is around 1mile from the car park but is not flat it is undulating.
Before you descend to the path to Pothmelgan beach (there is a small crossing) you can see the site to the northwest. You can then either take the steep path directly to the site of take the coastal path around the head and then on to the site.

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