Tag: Bargoed

Pen Twyn, Bargoed, Glamorgan

megalithix

Cup-Marked Stone (lost):  OS Grid Reference – SO 1491 0045

Archaeology & History

Sometime in the 1940s, a certain Lady A. Fox recorded a cup-marked stone “in the vicinity of Pen-twyn” near Bargoed.  Its position in the landscape is a good one: on a geological promontory and overlooking the valley below.  The find was indexed by the Ordnance Survey, but apart from it’s grid-reference, all attempts to locate the design have so far proved unsuccessful.

It was mentioned briefly in the Royal Commission (1976) survey of Glamorgan, then subsequently listed in the surveys of Sharkey (2004) and Nash (2007), but none of them were able to locate it.  And hence, I post it here, in the hope that some local hunter will be able to recover it from its hiding place!

References:

  1. Mazel, A., Nash, G. & Waddington, C. (eds.), Art as Metaphor: The Prehistoric Rock Art of Britain, ArchaeoPress: Oxford 2007.
  2. Nash, George, “A Scattering of Images: the Rock Art of Southern Britain,” in Art as Metaphor, ArchaeoPress: Oxford 2007.
  3. Royal Commission on the Ancient & Historical Monuments, Wales, An Inventory of the Ancient Monuments in Glamorgan – Volume 1: Pre-Norman, Part 1: The Stone and Bronze Ages, HMSO: Cardiff 1976.
  4. Sharkey, John, The Meeting of the Tracks: Rock Art in Ancient Wales, Gwasg Carreg Gwalch: Llanrwst 2004.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian

Maen Cattwg, Gelligaer, Glamorganshire

megalithix

Cup-Marked Stone:  OS Grid Reference – ST 1269 9744

Also Known as:

  1. Gelli-Gaer carving
  2. Maen Catwg

Getting Here

From Gelligaer, take the northernern road up Heol Adam for 2-300 yards, where you’ll see a footpath on your left taking you into the fields. Walk up the path and as it crosses the wall and bends due east, you’ll see the boulder in the middle of the field. That’s it!

Archaeology & History

Across the road from Tir-y-Rhen is this singular flat boulder, measuring about 10ft x 6ft, with at least 33 full cup-markings etched on it. Described briefly in Chris Houlder’s (1974) Welsh Archaeological guide, then more recently in John Sharkey’s (2004) Welsh rock-art book where he told there to be perhaps another seventeen cups on its surface, the Royal Commission (1976) lads gave us the surity of definition in their survey of neolithic sites in the region. A kilometre north of Gelligaer, some 260m above sea level, we find this well-preserved carved rock:

“An approximately rectangular block…much weathered at at the corners…2.6m long NE-SW, by 1.7m wide, and about 0.6m thick.  The upper surface is covered with a haphazard series of 33 cup-marks varying from 40 to 115mm in diameter, and from 5 to 60mm deep… There are also 17 more cup-marks which are too weathered for precise measurement, but whose presence is certain.  Other may have been completely worn away.  Two more slabs of stone are just visible under the west corner of the main stone, suggesting the possibility that the cup-marks were made on the capstone of a cromlech, now collapsed.”

An earlier account by Wheeler (1925) described a number of lines or channels linking some cup-marks to each other, but these are now very difficult to see.  I’ll hopefully get some decent images of this carving sometime soon!

References:

  1. Houlder, Chris, Wales: An Archaeological Guide, Faber: London 1974.
  2. Royal Commission on the Ancient & Historical Monuments, Wales, An Inventory of the Ancient Monuments in Glamorgan – Volume 1: Pre-Norman, Part 1: The Stone and Bronze Ages, HMSO: Cardiff 1976.
  3. Sharkey, John, The Meeting of the Tracks, Gwas carreg gwalch: Llanwrst 2004.
  4. Wheeler, R.E.M., Prehistoric and Roman Wales, Oxford University Press 1925.

© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian