Andy Burnham's Blog, page 79

Bryncrug Cairn

Also on our page an amazing aerial view of this site by Geraint1. A Bronze age burial cairn approx 9m in diameter. The burial area has been excavated and the cairn left open with a large "pit" in its centre. It is approximately 450m southeast of the summit of Craig-Yr-Aderyn.

Tomnaverie

New Book: The Moon and the Bonfire: An Investigation of Three Stone Circles (Tomnaverie, Keig, Old Deer) by Richard Bradley and team. Free/open access download, details on our page. One of the best-known Aberdeenshire recumbent stone circles, in a splendid situation. There is a small parking area with signed footpath up the rest of the hill to the circle. I think that although the circle has been much damaged in the past, due to local quarrying activity, it has been restored as best as possible.

Welcome to the New Improved Megalithic Portal Web Server

You won't really see any difference apart from a very welcome speed improvement. It doesn't look like we have done much but the operating system we were running on was due to go to 'end-of-life' in the next few months and the latest equivalent would not run our code without some important changes.

Bierberg Gerbitz

Bierberg = ale mountain! Unlike most megalithic tombs in Germany this and some other sites in the area are built from dressed limestone slabs rather than granite glacial erratics. While the northern chamber-part and passage are well preserved, the southern part of this stunning site is damaged.

Clury

Clury Cairn; 'a tomb with a view', being one of some 18 ancient burial sites on the western side of the River Spey with a view of the Cairngorms. See the nearby sites list on our page for more. Historic Environment Scotland say Clury "is a Wessex-type embanked cairn preserved within a near square modern plantation dyke. The cairn, quarried from the SW, measures about 14.0m in diameter and survives to a height of about 2.0m"

Bryn y Gefeiliau Ancient Trackway

Leading from Capel Currig to Dolwyddelan this ancient trackway was probably used by the Roman military during their occupation of NW Wales in the late 1st cent AD until 120 AD. This section of the track rises to the foothills of Moel Siabod before descending towards Dolwyddelan. Today it passes through an ancient landscape with evidence of prehistoric activity in abundance.

Fox Covert Barrows

A lovely example of a saucer barrow, "Avebury 13", only 0.4m high. A group of four, possibly five, Bronze Age barrows visible from the distance while you walk along the A361 road in Wiltshire. Known officially as Avebury 10 to 13.

Stèle de Saint-Patrice

This monolith, located at the Rue des Frères Lagadec, and included in a wall of a private garden, is a large Christianized Gaulish stele which once held several statues of saints. It is also called "menhir of justice", having probably served as a gallows.

Altóir na Gréine

Billy Mag Fhloinn the re-discoverer has very kindly provided us with the location coordinates so it now appears on our maps. . A "lost" 4,000-year-old tomb has been rediscovered on the Dingle Peninsula in Co Kerry. The megalithic tomb known locally as Altóir na Gréine was believed to have been completely destroyed in the 1840s, with its stones broken and carried away for use as building material.

Cefn Glas Round Cairn

Situated along an ancient track that leads from Capel Curig to Betws y Coed the cairn lies to the north of the track on a low promontory following a stile crossing of a boundary fence. There are commanding views towards the mountains to the west and south, and although the site overlooks the lowlands to the north and east, these are hidden due to the rise of the ground. What remains of this robbed cairn is an apparent crescent rim of earth fast stone that arcs north to south.