Books, Prehistory, Archaeologia Cambrensis 1847 Page 373

CROMLECHS, &c. IN PEMBROKESHIRE.

To the Editors of the Archewologia Cambrensis.

GENTLEMEN, — Knowing your anxiety to obtain information, however brief, concerning the nature and localities of British remains in Wales, I send you the following list of some of the monuments in this county:—

There is an inscription, surmounting a cross, on a stone which is now used as a gate-post, on a farm called PEN ARTHUR, near St. David's, in the occupation of Mrs. Roberts. The stone was found in a moor not far distant from its present locality. The tradition current among the country people is, that the stone commemorates a battle fought in the neighbourhood, about some lands to which the cathedral of St. David's laid claim.

In the parish of Nevern, near Newport (Trevdraeth), Pembrokeshire, there are two magnificent cromlechs, namely,

1. Llech y Drybedd [Map], about two and a half miles north-east of Nevern church, on Tre Icert farm. It is supported upon three short upright stones. he incumbent stone is of a bluish, or a hone-colour, hue, and knives and penknives are sharpened upon it. It is about forty feet in circumference, and its thickness from three to four feet.

The vignette in the title-page of Fenton's History of Pembrokeshire, is a drawing of it by the late Sir Richard Hoare; but there instead of the incumbent stone dipping north-west, it dips south-east.

In a field on the west there is a stone called Maen y tri-etivedd, the stone of the three heirs.

2. Coetan Arthur, on Pentre Ivan farm [Map], about two and a half miles south-east of Nevern church. Mr. Fenton says, that Sir Richard Hoare thought the cromlech, or temple, (?) at Pentre Ivan, surpassed in size and height any he had seen in Wales or England, Stonehenge and Abury excepted. It was formerly in a circle of rude stones, one hundred and fifty feet in circumference.

The incumbent stone rests upon two of columnar form, tapering to a point, with an intermediate one, which does not quite reach the south end. The most elevated supporter is above eight feet high, the lowest seven feet. The top stone is of immense size, and much thicker at one extremity than the other. It is eighteen feet long, nine feet broad, and three feet deep at the heavier end.

In the adjoining field, about one hundred or one hundred and fifty yards north-east from the above cromlech, is a huge recumbent stone, evidently intended for an altar; but broken in the act of being lifted, or hoisted, up, At one point, or end, of the stone, there are two large holes, scooped apparently with the intention to place poles in them to lift up the stone, or to support the stone when lifted up; and close at hand there is a rock, or a rock-like stone, with large holes made in it, apparently to rest the ends of the poles in them, whilst the stone was being lifted up.

Not far from Pentre Ivan, now a farm-house, on the road that leads to Ty canol, there are the remains of a curiously pitched way, called the Causeway, which tradition says formerly led to the cromlech. The present remains are about half a mile from the cromlech.

In the parish of TREVDRAETH, or Newport, Pembrokeshire, there is a beautiful cromlech; but not so large as the one on Tre Icert farm. It is close to the town, about two miles west from Nevern church, in a field, on the left hand of the road leading from Newport to Berry Hill, and about two hundred yards from the Nevern river.

About half a mile from Newport, on the Fishguard road, in a field adjoining the road, and near a bridge, there are very curious druidical remains. It is a small chamber formed of massive stones, placed around it something in the shape of the radii of a wheel, having incumbent stones resting upon them; but whether these stones cover a grave, or form a sanctum sanctorum, or a place to initiate candidates in the rites or mysteries of druidism, or what they were, I will leave others to judge.

Pembrokeshire must certainly have been a land of the Druids; for no county in Wales can boast of so many cromlechs. It would be desirable, indeed, to have a list, as well as a drawing, of them; and the mighty cromlech on the farm of Longhouse, near Trevein, in the parish of Llanrian, is one of the most stupendous of any of them.

There is a cromlech, also, in a field near Stone Hall, in the parish of St. Lawrence, from which the ancient house of the WocANs, now no more, no doubt took its name. One end only of this cromlech is supported; and it is so large that one is astonished at the strength that must have been used to lift up even this one end of it.

Besides these there are cromlechs in the following parishes ia this county. Parish of Mathry, at Glandwr and Longhouse; and parish of St. Nicholas, at Trellys and Ffynnonddrudian.

Yours, &ec.,

Nevern, Sept. 1st, 1847. TEGID.