Mysterious Britain & Ireland

Specific Location: Anglesey

Ancient Sites / Early Christianity / Folklore

St Nidan’s Old Church and The Thigh Stone

St Nidan’s Church in Llanidan is associated with a stone that had strange magical like properties including aiding fertilisation and having the power to move on its own.  Wirt Sykes in his British Goblins (1881) mentions that ‘The old British historian Nennius speaks of a stone, one of the wonders of the Isle

Hauntings

South Stack Lighthouse

It was the 9th February 1809 when the oil lamps in the newly built South Stack Lighthouse were first lit to provide a beacon to the east bound shipping on the dangerous sea passage between Dublin, Holyhead and Liverpool. The building stands 28 metres (ninety-one feet) tall, and can be seen for about twenty-eight miles, depending on the height of the observer above sea level on the vessel.

Ancient Sites / Roman

Caer Leb

Caer Leb is a rectangular shaped earthwork with double banks and ditches. It measures approximately two hundred feet by one hundred and sixty feet, so it is quite a large site. A 3rd Century brooch and a 4th Century denarius along with some Roman pottery and Iron Age quern stones have been found at Caer Leb.

Ancient Sites / Burial Mounds

Bodowyr Burial Chamber

The remains of the Neolithic (4000-2000BC) Bodowyr Burial Chamber, consist of a capstone (seven feet by six feet) resting upon three uprights (making a Cromlech). Located northwest of the village of Brynsiencyn, in a field, the chamber is fenced off.

Access is via the B4419 near Llangaffo and a CADW signpost indicates the location.

Ancient Sites / Buried Treasure / Standing Stones / Stone Circles

Bryn Gwyn Standing Stones

These are two giant standing stones, probably two of the tallest in Wales, standing thirteen feet and ten feet tall. They are situated in a field, and actually form part of the field boundary. The stones were recorded as being part of a stone circle the 17th Century, but the circle was allegedly demolished in 19th Century, by locals looking for buried treasure.

Ancient Sites / Roman

Castell Bryn Gwyn

There is much speculation over the age and use of Castell Bryn Gwyn (White Hill Castle). It was not a hillfort, being built on flat land, but excavations in 1959-1960 discovered that the rampart and ditch were similar to hillfort defences. It may have been a Neolithic henge monument, but nevertheless, there has been a long history of occupation at the site.