Two Megalithic Burial Chambers

-


Megalithic Burial Chambers
David Young the artist and a member of the MAA, has sent two of his evocative water colours. David writes. ‘Here are two water colours of mine that I did some years ago, based on photographs taken by me, of Pentre Ifan and Carreg Samson, Neolithic burial chambers in Pembrokeshire. The weather was not like that shown in the pictures. I remember deciding to make one peaceful and sunny and the other ominous and stormy. I think the representation of the monuments was fairly accurate, though not in the style that professional antiquarians would choose. I was attending the Summer Meeting of the Cambrians in 1992, but I have been to both sites since.’ He adds ‘Don't take the background hills in my picture as authentic. I used artistic licence to bring them nearer.’




Pentre Ifan, Pembrokeshire   © David Young


Carreg Samson Pembrokeshire   © David Young

Editor’s comments
Dating: Although these two tombs are in Pembrokeshire they are important examples of Megalithic tombs also known as cromlechs or dolmens which date to the Neolithic. Such tombs are found from Spain to Scandinavia. It was only in 1836 that Danish curator Thomsen noted that they were not found with metal tools. In 1863 the Secretary of the Cambrian Archaeological Society, Edward Barnwell, noted that they must therefore belong to the Stone Age.  They were constructed between 4000 BC until at least 3000 BC
Pentre Ifan is a classic example of a portal dolmen and today all you can see is the massive capstone of 16 tons and three stones. Two stones flank the entrance or portal which is sealed by a blocking stone. It would have been covered with a rectangular cairn or mound. Finds included a small quantity of burnt bone, probably human, pottery and flints.  There would probably have been a forecourt for rituals associated with the dead.
Carreg Samson, near Abercastle close to Fishguard, was possibly a passage tomb but all evidence of the passage which allowed entrance to the tomb is lost. With passage tombs the chamber is usually in the centre of the mound with access from a passageway through which people could walk or crawl depending on the height. Excavation in 1968, revealed four additional stone-holes, one having supported a further chamber stone, the others indicated a possible passage leading off to the NW. As you can see from the painting the sea is in the distance. Excavations uncovered a pottery vessel holding the cremated ashes of several people. The dolmen is composed of seven upright stones topped by a capstone over 4.5m long. The capstone is actually balanced on just 3 of the 7 support stones.
In Momouthshire: there are only 4 certain sites, Gwern y Cleppa, Heston Brake, Thornwell and Y Gaer Llwyd. The first 3 are on knolls or hills with views over the Bristol Channel and Y Gaer Llwyd is on higher ground with a possible sight line to the Bristol Channel. They are part of the Cotswold Severn Group stretching from Gower to the mouth of the Wye.
If you would like to write about one of these or have a picture please send it to me.
Thanks to:  David Young for his evocative water colours,

Sources used:
Sian Rees, A Guide to Ancient & Historic Wales, Dyfed, Cadw, First Edition. (1992)
Steve Burrow The Tomb Builders in Wales 4000-3000 BC, NMW, 2006.
Coflein. https://coflein.gov.uk/en/site/101450/details/pentre-ifan-chambered-tomb-near-nevern and https://coflein.gov.uk/en/site/94129/details/carreg-sampson-burial-chamber
See also Rick Peterson and Joshua Pollard, ‘The Neolithic: The First Farming Societies’ in The Gwent County History, Volume 1, UWP 2004

Popular posts from this blog

The Crumlin Branch of the Monmouthshire Canal

-
Image
The Crumlin Branch of t he Monmouthshire Canal Many people have been using the canal system to carry out lockdown walks and the Crumlin branch of the canal is a favourite for people in and around Newport. Anne Dunton has sent some photographs of her daily walk during lockdown. She usually walks up to the top of Ridgeway in Newport and then takes the path down through the woods of  Allt-yr-yn Nature Reserve   to the canal . The reserve  occupies the 32 acre site of the former Allt-yr-yn House and lido, and an old stone quarry.  The lido has been turned into one of the ponds and only a few stones of the house remain .   Thus Anne is   walking through the grounds of  Allt-yr -yn house .    lt was  situated to the west of Newport and was surrounded by woodland and fields.   She remembers swimming in  Allt-yr-yn  lido  and this link is to a page from Newport Past. The lido was  opened by the Deputy-Mayor in 1934 and closed  in  the mid 1960s.   Now the remains are overgrown and obscur
Read more

Growing up in Llanarth

-
Image
Growing up in Llanarth by Peter Nash Llanarth Court: Photograph taken by Peter’s parents I was brought up in the village of Llanarth, half way though the last century. My parents had come to the village in 1949, to take up jobs as teachers in Llanarth Court in the recently opened boys’ preparatory school, Blackfriars, run by Dominicans. I was born 10 months after their arrival and my mother stopped work. We lived in the Pitt House, a 17 th Century farmhouse with a priest’s hole in the central chimney: Llanarth was and always had been a Catholic village. In 1953 mum then got a job in the village school, Clytha RC, but known to everyone locally as the Pitt School. It had two teachers, upstairs for juniors, where Eileen Badham, ruled with a rod of iron, and downstairs for Infants, where my mum held sway. There were about 40 pupils at this time. I started school, before my fourth birthday, as a dispensation for my mother.  I soon learned that the highlight of the
Read more

A Vanished Castle in Newport - Ebboth or Greenfield Castle

-
Image
A Vanished Castle in Newport Ebboth or Greenfield Castle A sketch copied from the the Tithe Map and with features such as the possible motte copied from the  OS map 25" to the mile. The existing mound is small and might not be a motte.  In March 1457 Jasper Tudor, earl of Pembroke and Margaret Beaufort, the thirteen year old widow of his brother Edmund, were guests of the duke of Buckingham at his castle of Ebboth (or Greenfield).   We would now call this Maesglas, part of Newport close to the river Ebbw.   So where was this castle that was fit to receive such visitors, and why not use the duke’s castle at Newport? Margaret had given birth two months earlier at Pembroke castle to her only child.   He would eventually become Henry VII, the first Tudor king, and father of Henry VIII.   She was a tiny person, the birth had apparently been difficult, and travelling was not easy.   The likely explanation is that as a rich and under age widow Margaret needed to find
Read more