Saith Maen Stone Row

Описание: I finally got to visit a site that has managed to elude me for over 25 years. The site in question is the Saith Maen stone alignment nestled on the banks of the mighty Cribarth mountain in Glyntawe, near Craig y Nos castle.
Over the years I have seen countless pictures of the monument and passed by on numerous occasions but have never spotted a way up, you must remember in those days there was only the trusty landranger maps. Last year myself and partner Zoe actually sumitted Cribarth and it was my intention to continue on to the monument but unfortunately darkness had fallen before we reached the trig point so we couldn’t progress any further so last weekend I was determined not to come home without a visit. This time was a solo mission, I parked up in a lay-by just past Craig y Nos, and opposite was a gate with a sign for a heritage trail and access to open hill so off I went, the path was quite steep to be fair and so I ascended to height very quickly, I was using my OS app of which I had downloaded the Brecon map so I could use it like a walking sat nav to the monument, quite a way up the ever steepening path the map showed the monument to my right so me being inpatient me I stepped over the fence and continued on open moorland.
Now as I’m sure anyone familiar with the area will tell you the terrain is very rugged and can become very boggy very quickly, on my current trajectory the map showed a water source between myself and the monument which in the real world what I was faced with was a ravine running down the mountain, so I made my way down to the stream but the floor became so boggy and marshy after a slurpy boot full of water I quickly came to terms with the fact that the short cut was out of the question and I had to continue up the hill and go around the top, beyond the ravine, so off I trudged, eventually coming to a path of sorts which led to a gate, next to which was a stile which lead to a set of what looked like quad tracks. At the stile in the far off distance what looked like a stone glimmering in the sunlight caught my eye, this in fact turned out to be the monument.

The feelings I experienced as I approached were insane, I had literally waited over 25 years to get here and here I was and it didn’t disappoint, the positive energy was instantly mesmerising, the site consists of 7 stones, Hence the title, Saith Maen ( Seven Stones ) 5 are standing, 2 have fallen, unfortunately the 2 fallen are the tallest.
They are all of the same stone (carboniferous siliceous grit stone, apparently) except one which is Old Red Sandstone, which means it was either dragged there or was a glacial erratic.
The orientation is north-northeast by south-southwest.
The heights of the stones (including those fallen) range from 0.6m to 2.8m. Edge on (looking along the row) the stones present their thinnest sides. From in front or behind they show their broader faces.

CADW says:the heights are:
First stone (most northerly): 1.6mSecond stone (fallen to west): 2.3mThird stone: 1m (sandstone)Fourth stone: (fallen to east): 2.9mFifth stone: 0.8mSixth stone: 0.8mSeventh stone: 0.7m
The length of the row is about 12m, the gaps between the stones appears to be a similar distance (around 1m).

Barber and Williams (1989) suggest that the alignment is pointing to the nearby stone circle Cerrig Duon, which is 6km to the northeast.
CADW also mention a possible outlier 7.9m to the southwest.

To the North of the stones is a massive sinkhole which is really close to the tall standing stone, one can only assume a monument of this proportion was ritualistic and therefore ceremonial and my initial thought was how many ancient revellers have taken a tumble into the sinkhole, it really is that big, that deep and that close, surely in the mist and darkness the hole must have swallowed a number of unsuspecting people and animals across millennia, resulting in a hell of an awkward climb out for the lucky ones who weren’t at that point on their way to the Celtic otherworld. It has been suggested that the hole was part of the ritualistic complex, for which purpose we can only imagine but probably not particularly pleasant.

I was completely captivated by my visit to Saith Maen, my pendulum reactions were off the scale as I expected they would be which again suggests each individual stone was placed precisely within the landscape to enhance the pure energy emitted by the earth whilst also enhancing a constellational connection.
For as long as I have visited these amazing sites I have always felt a profound connection, an overwhelming feeling of wonderment of how and why our ancient ancestors were able to construct these monuments so precisely within a landscape which was I can only assume, to them at that time beholding of a sacred knowledge long since lost through the echoes of time.