Dyffryn Ardudwy Cromlechs
Behind the local school at Dyffryn Ardudwy and reached by a sign posted footpath two exposed cromlechs are visible amidst a field of stones. The cromlechs are about twenty feet apart and the stones that surround them mark the remains of the huge cairn that would have covered these graves that date back to the Neolithic period. The original cairn is estimated to have been 130’ long and 55’ wide.
The entrances to the burial chambers face east. Inside the chambers were discovered evidence of cremations and two plaques made of stone from Mynydd Rhiw, the Neolithic axe factory.
Re: Dyffryn Ardudwy Cromlechs
In ‘Places Of Power’ (1990) Paul Devereux paraphrases the following quote from 1905. He says Dryffyn was a hot spot for lights on the Mochras Fault and the quoted account can only have been a few hundred metres from the cromlechs.
“In reference to the fire concerning which you wrote to me. There are several here who have seen it in varying forms – sometimes near Chapel Egryn, sometimes on the roof thereof, and sometimes some half mile or more from the place. When I saw it, it was about half a mile from the chapel, and about a mile from where I stood. That was about 5 o’clock in the evening. The first form in which it appeared to me was that of a pillar of clear fire quite perpendicular. It was about 2 feet wide, and about three yards in height. Suddenly another small fire began by its side some two yards distant from the first pillar, and increased rapidly until it assumed the same size and form as the other two pillars. So there were three pillars of the same size and form. And as I gazed upon them I saw two arms of fire extending upwards from the top of each of the pillars. The three pillars and their arms assumed exactly the same shape and remained so for about a minute or two. As I looked towards the sky I saw smoke ascending from the pillars, and immediately they began to disappear. Their disappearance was equally swift with their growth. It was a gradual disappearance; the fire became small and went out. I thought they were natural fire, but it was a very wonderful fire. I never saw fire the same as it in my life – three pillars or columns of the same measure and of exactly the same shape and equidistant from each other. I do not propose to offer any kind of explanation. I leave that to you.”