User:Richard Keatinge/Castell Bryn Gwyn

Castell Bryn Gwyn is a prehistoric site on the Welsh island of Anglesey, west of Brynsiencyn. Its name means "White Hill Castle". The original use of this site is uncertain although it may have been a religious sanctuary. Later Neolithic pottery indicates use in this period, and it may have been a henge monument at this time. The earliest bank and ditch belong to the end of the neolithic period (2500-2000 BC). During the Iron Age the present wall was built, and refortified in Roman times and later. The circular clay and gravel bank, still some 1.5m high, surrounds a level area some 54 metres in diameter, now revetted by stone walls.

Parking is exiguous; the site is accessible from the roadside by footpaths. One path follows the low ridge, southwest over stiles to the Bryn Gwyn Stones, or northeast, past the site of the former stone circle of Tre'r Dryw Bach, some 800 metres to Caer Leb.

Bryn Gwyn Stones
The Bryn Gwyn stones stand about 280 metres to the north-east of Castell Bryn Gwyn. They are the tallest standing stones in Wales, some 4 metres high. In 1723 Rowlands described them as part of a ruinous circle of eight stones, some 16 metres across. An account of 1797 says that "ignorant country people supposing money was hid under them tore them up" and today only two stones, one slab and one pillar, stand in a modern field bank. Nothing else is visible on the ground, but recent excavation has found three pits of standing stones, two containing stone stumps, consistent with the record by Rowlands. One other standing stone was not part of the circle.

From the Bryn Gwyn Stones the midsummer sun rises over the centre of Castell Bryn Gwyn and through both entrances to the Castell.

Further to the north-east at Tre'r Dryw Bach, another large circle was reported by 18th century visitors but has since been cleared away.

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