Solstice @ Bryn Celli Ddu and other rock'n roll habits.

 

 

Solstice Weekend Anglesey (Ynys Mon)  21-23 June. CADW / Llenyddiaeth Cymru.

A weekend of activities, organised around the Solstice at Bryn Celli Ddu but including a walking tour, story telling, family fun, reconstructions,  Druids – ‘real and imaginary’ and  Open Days at the mindblowing and wonderful Bryn Celli Ddu and Barclodiad y Gawres. Yep, it was a good weekend, as Kent V. Flannery said in his 1982 paper ‘The Golden Marshalltown,  American Anthropologist  1984, pp 265-278,  where he describes archaeology as “the most fun you can have with your pants on”.

            Not that I noticed anyone with their pants off, and I didn’t even get to see any Druids ‘real or imaginary’ but over the 3 days it was definitely a case of a lot of people, visitors and locals, as it were “digging the archaeology”. It’s such a positive thing, there is such an interest out there and the overwhelming impression was of people enjoying themselves but also learning, taking an interest, getting to understand the landscape and most importantly of all – asking questions !

            I was due to lead a 10 mile walk around ‘Neolithic Anglesey’ on the Friday and I must confess, that the thought of being up at 3-30am to catch the rising of the Sun at 4-30am was a bit too much in view of the demands of the day. So I turned up at Plas Newydd for the start of our tour at the Godly hour of 9-30am. Two of our walking party had attended the Solstice Celebrations, good on ’em – as we say in Welsh – “parch”.

            I’d witnessed the sun coming down the passage way of Bryn Celli about three years ago with Ken Brassil from the National Museum of Wales, we’d been there a few day early but the effect was pretty much the same. We were the only two there on that occasion but next year I must try and get over to witness the celebrations and suss out these Druids ‘real or imaginary’.

 

 

Our Literary Neolithic Anglesey walk on the Friday had been organised by Llenyddiaeth Cymru / Literature Wales and I must confess when Bronwen first contacted me to do this job I was so pleased but also they described me as "Legendary Punk Rock Musician, Antiquarian and Author". So good was the job description that I have since used it on my twitter account.

 

Within Plas Newydd we have two Neolithic Monuments, the cromlech on the lawn which we discussed as more than likely authentic and then the chamber of 'Bryn yr Hen Bobl' which I always describe as having the best name for a cromlech - in the World ! 'Yr Hen Bobl' are the old folk - our ancestors - it makes sense.

 

According to early guide books produced by Plas Newydd, Humphry Repton the landscape artist had noted the cromlech as belonging to the Druids and it had been his intention to leave a marble plaque by the stones explaining the history of the stones. This was during the 1790's so it was well before anybody realised that the Druids came almost 3,000 years later, but it does suggest that the cromlech was there originally and that it's not a folly constructed by Repton for the Bayly family.

 

 

 

Bryn yr Hen Bobl is the only burial chamber on Anglesey with the mound or cairn remaining - which I think DOES give us a clue perhaps as to the cairns or mounds surrounding or covering  other cromlechs. If you visit sites such as Carneddau Hengwm in Ardudwy both monuments up there are covered by stone cairns but the obvious examples on Mon such as Bodowyr have long been denuded probably by agricultural activity over the centuries.

 

 

http://youtu.be/JWByij3fsrc

 

 

Later in the day we visit Bryn Celli Ddu and Barclodiad y Gawres both of which have reconstructed mounds. There is some debate as to how much of a cromlech was covered and when the may have been covered or closed - we certainly had an on-going debate throughout the day. Again it has to be about asking questions. The great thing about our day is that we were accompanied by Fiona Collins a story teller (see pic above) and also two of the party were archaeologists - so the discussions certainly flowed.

 

At Bryn Celli Ddu we had a no-show from the Druids. part of me was disappointed because I really did want to try and find out more about where they are coming from if not going to. It's a bit of a struggle because even if we do rightly acknowledge the 'hen bobl' in all this it's still a long stretch from 3000 BC to 300BC. You see Punk Rock taught us to be critical and to challenge - I am no hippy that's for sure, but then I'm close to the Earth, I understand all that, it was handed down to us from my mother and our grandmothers - and again they were no hippies but they understood plants, herbs etc it was just day to day stuff for them.

 

We did a good bit of walking between Bryn Celli Ddu and Caer Leb and eventually jumped on a very welcomed coach organised by Literature Wales to get us up the final stretch to Barclodiad. At the end of the afternoon we were treated to a story by Fiona and to cap it all she had also prepared chocolate cake for us all - that was a pretty good ending to a pretty good day.

 

One interesting detour was to check out the cup mark stones near Bryn Celli having first cleared it with the Landowner.

 

This is the nearby rock that Julian Cope in Modern Antiquarian suggests may have been a 'gorsedd' it overlooks the burial chamber and has around 6-10 visible cupmarks on it's surface. We did end up debating if this may have been a funerary platform for bodies before they entered the burial chamber. Obviously there is another on-going debate about cupmarks as they appear on standing stones (Trelech), capstones as in Bachwen, Clynnog (110 of them) and also on nearby rocks as is the case here.