Скачать или смотреть Carreg y Bwci (The Goblin's Stone) - tales of supernatural goings-on in Carmarthenshire, Mid Wales

Briefly stopping off for a shufty following a full day spent checking out Craig Twrch's numerous cairns, I have to admit to being somewhat baffled here. The archaeologists at RCAHMW reckon the site represents the remains of a Roman signal station, sitting as it does beside Sarn Helen..... a Roman Road. However, for balance, this view has to be contrasted with CADW's official scheduling (CD156) which includes the following:

"The monument comprises the remains of a circular earthwork, which probably dates to the Bronze Age (c. 2300 - 800 BC)..... The origin of the site seems to be as [a] prehistoric funerary monument consisting of features of a round barrow and recumbent stone circle. The large boulder may have originally been upright. It has also been suggested that the site was re-used as a Roman signal station."

Now, while The Citizen Cairn has no wish (no, really) to be thought of as biased against the bloody Romans (and, let's face it... of all the things they did for us, building signal stations probably wasn't the most inspiring), perhaps the 'recycling angle' might fit best here, bearing in mind the wealth of 'metaphysical' lore associated with Carreg y Bwci... aka 'The Goblin's Stone'? The name presumably a reference to the large recumbent 'boulder' which sits upon/within the mound, it's hard to imagine the perfunctory actions of legionnaires who probably died of boredom - or hypothermia - two millennia or so ago putting the wind up a passing traveller to the same degree as lingering folk memories of burial rights/rituals made manifest in the apparent antics of a mythical Welsh supernatural creature? Or is it just me?

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