Blwyddyn Newydd dda i chi gyd – Good New Year to you all.
What snow we experienced here on Anglesey,. Our back garden was like a scene from fairyland and so beautifully quiet.
One present I had for Christmas was the wonderful detailed illustration of the votive scene as depicted by Tony Daly, which my husband had framed for me. This brought happy memories back of our visit to his studio at the National Museum in Cardiff.
As it is copyrighted, I'm afraid you will have to view it at my Powerpoint presentations only!
Dominic, a family member, agreed to write an account for me about his experiences at the Bryn Gwyn site, Brynsiencyn in December. (Dom is on the extreme left of the picture).
“George Smith from the Gwynedd Archaeological Trust and a team of volunteers has returned to carry out further excavations at the Brynsiencyn site Bryn Gwyn. The Bryn Gwyn site is famous for having two standing stones standing within a field boundary wall which may have been part of a henge monument erected in the late Neolithic period around four thousand years ago.
The first excavation carried out in 2008 was to establish if indeed the standing stones were part of a ringed henge monument and to try and locate any potential existing stone holes that maybe lying beneath the surface. The site turned out to be very interesting as two remaining stumps of what were clearly at one time standing stones, one being on a circular alignment, were clearly found, with evidence of deliberate removal.
In December 2010 the object of the dig was to try and find the remaining stone sockets or robbed out pits, to try to establish how many stones had originally stood at this site. There are old accounts from visiting antiquarians to Anglesey, which saw at least four stones standing and estimated that there may have been at least eight or nine stones standing in its original state.
One of the stone stumps that had been partially excavated in 2008, was opened up to reveal more of the stone and try to establish how far down it went. Also to try and find any datable evidence for its construction. What was interesting was, this stone was on a completely different alignment to the other remaining stones. It was made of limestone and seemed to be on an alignment with the mid winter solstice sunset and also with the entrance of the Castell Bryn Gwyn site in the adjacent field. There were some pieces of worked flint found at the site and evidence of burning and charcoal around some of the potential stone locations.
The last interesting point is that the two remaining standing stones you can see today are of completely different shapes. One stone being of a lozenge or diamond shape and the other has a pointed thin form. Even more interesting is that what we seem to have established is that each stone that originally stood seemed to alternate between lozenge and point forms. This I clearly saw in another location which I visited recently, around a very historical and well documented site at West Kennet Avenue leading to the Henge monument at Avebury in Wiltshire. There, the avenue of standing stones are lozenge and pointed and have been deliberately erected to be opposite to each other as the avenue climbs to the main henge monument. It has also been suggested that this maybe a representation of male and female. Further excavation will be carried out at the site in the near future.”
I enjoy reading Rhys Mwyn’s archaeological articles in the Welsh Herald enclosed in the Daily Post each week. This week he mentions the Megalithic Anglesey DVD which we both took part in. This has been unavailable for some time but according to Rhys, can now be had through www.telegtv.com as can also the one on Parys Mountain.
It was my eldest granddaughter Shula’s 21st. birthday two days ago. Here she is with me and her cousins Awen Hâf and Elin Sian.
Sorry, I seemed to have managed somehow to set it all on the left and have no one here to correct it for me! I dare not try it myself incase I delete it all1
