Hafod y Gorswen Cairns

Hafod y Gorswen (featured here) is an abandoned farmstead up above the Conwy Valley, lying near the Afon Dulyn where it flows down the shallow valley from Dulyn. The farmstead sits in a long enclosure of fields, at the west end of which is a small cairn. A little further west is another cairn which is more impressive; a ring cairn which can be characterised as a 'four poster,' with four upright stones on the site.

This shallow, high valley, named Pant y Griafolen where it runs down from Dulyn and Melynllyn (I'm not sure if the name extends all the way to the edge of the Conwy Valley), shows plenty of evidence of having been used and occupied back into prehistory, with settlement remains further west towards the lakes, and these cairns nearer the eastern end of the valley. In more recent times the western end has been exploited for quarrying and the lakes turned into reservoirs, and it must have been farmed for a long time, with a number of abandoned houses lying along the eastern length.

This cairn sits at the end of the land around Hafod y Gorswen, but there's not much to see but a hump in the grass. It doesn't seem to be mentioned on Coflein but is marked on the Ordnance Survey map. The Ordnance Survey grid reference is SH 73325 67604. Beyond the cairn to the east is Pen y Gaer, with its iron age hillfort.

This is quite a distinct mound, at least, which is more than many of these cairns are. 

 

The ring cairn a little further to the west is much more interesting visually. It wasn't very easy to find, with all of the scattered stones and humps of gorse around, but very obvious as soon as I saw it. It sits at Ordnance Survey grid reference SH 73355 67433.

 

Two of the upright stones on the site.

This view shows all four of the upright stones. Coflein is cautious about calling this a 'four poster,' since this is a type of monument which is usually seen in Perthshire, Scotland. It lists the site as probably being from the Bronze Age. There's a very obvious scatter of stones ringing around the centre of the site.

It seems quite reasonable for Coflein to be uncertain about the 'four poster' definition, since there are quite a few other large stones around the cairn which look as if they may have fallen over since construction.

This is the single tallest stone on the site.

 

Some little way from the ring cairn, at grid reference SH 72930 67322, I came across this little ring of stones. I have no idea what its purpose is or how old it is, but it seemed worth recording.

It seems a very distinct and deliberate structure, for whatever purpose.

On the other side of the Afon Dulyn, very nearby, lies the remains of Hafod y Garreg, a small settlement with a couple of hafodau which are still fairly intact. Coflein also mentions the remains of a couple of post-mediaeval longhuts on the site.