Plas Newydd Burial Chamber, Anglesey, North-West Wales aka Gwynedd, British Isles [Map]

A Second Walk Through Wales. We proceeded to the mansion of Plas-Newydd through the park, an inclosure of no great extent, but extremely beautiful, gently sloping to the Menai, and covered with venerable oaks, and noble ash trees. In the midst of this fine sylvan scene, stand two august and most appropriate ornaments, relics of Druidical superstition, and monuments of the rude art of the ancient British, by far the greatest and most perfect specimens of Druidical remains [Plas Newydd Burial Chamber [Map]] in the whole island. They are what antiquaries call cromlechs.

These huge piles stand contiguous to each other, (as is, I believe, generally the case with respect to the cromlech) but the eastern is considerably the larger of the two. This seems originally to have consisted of seven stones, six uprights supporting an immense superincumbent one, (with its flat face lying upon them) thirteen feet long, nearly as much broad, and four feet thick. When first constructed, it would probably have admitted a tall man to stand upright in it. The western cromlech is a child to its mighty neighbour, little more than five feet long by four and half broad; originally supported by four stones, one of which is fallen from its proper situation.

Whether or not these prodigious piles of stones were raised to the honour of the Deity, or to the memory of the departed hero, would lead us into a field of enquiry too wide for a letter to investigate. Both opinions have had their able advocates; but the weight of argument seems to preponderate on that side which ascribes the cromlech to the purposes Whether or not these prodigious piles of stones were raised to the honour of the Deity, or to the memory of the departed hero, would lead us into a field of enquiry too wide for a letter to investigate. Both opinions have had their able advocates; but the weight of argument seems to preponderate on that side which ascribes the cromlech to the purposes

Archaeological Journal Volume 28 1871 Pages 97-108. 1. Plas Newydd [Map], Llanidan par. (s).

The most remarkable of the numerous cromlechs in Anglesey, with which indeed no other example in the British Islands may compare in magnitude of dimensions, and the grand impressive character of its aspect, is the renowned monument in the woods behind the house at Plas Newydd.¹ This is a double cromlech, the upper stone of the larger moiety measuring in length, according to Pennant, 12 ft. 7 in., 12 ft. in breadth and 4 ft. in thickness. It was supported by five tall stones, of which one has now fallen, and is so lofty that, as Pennant observes, a middle-sized horse might easily pass beneath. The lesser one, to the south of the great cromlech, is separated by a small interval, about 13 in.; the upper stone is almost square, measuring about 5½ ft. in each direction, and supported by four uprights. Rowlands, by whom this grand cromlech appears to have been first noticed, about 1723, men- tions the site as formerly called Llwyn Moel, and that there probably was one of the larger Druidical groves. Mona Antiqua, p. 94, second edition. A small inaccurate representation is to be seen in pl. vii, and the dimensions are given as 13 ft. by 9, the thickness 3 ft.; those of the smaller adjunct 6 ft. by 5, thickness 3 ft. (Ibid. p. 100). It may be observed that Rowlands was, as some allege, the first writer by whom the term "cromlechs" was used to designate the megalithic remains under consideration. Pennant, in his journey in 1781, seems to have examined carefully both the cromlechs and the adjacent carnedd, amidst the venerable oaks, at that time belonging to Sir Nicholas Bayly. Tour in Wales, vol. ii. p. 236. A view by Moses Griffith accompanies his description,² from which the particulars given by King, Munim. Antiqua, p. 93, and in Gough’s Additions to Camden’s Britannia, vol. iii. p. 201, were chiefly taken. Amongst other notices of this celebrated cromlech, may be cited that by the late Rev. H. Longueville Jones, in his Memoir on the Cromlechs extant in Anglesey (in 1846), Arch. Journ. vol. iii. p. 41, with a view of the monument. See also his list of Prehistoric Remains of Wales, Arch. Cambr. N. S,, vol. v. 205. He observes that he was not aware of any excavations having been made under it, but there is every appearance, from the formation of the ground, that it had once been surrounded by a carn or heap of stones. Mr. Jones suggests that probably the second cromlech in these cases served as the tomb of the wife, or the son, of the deceased chieftain. He has given, in the Archaologia Cambrensis (third series, vol. viii. p. 13), a second N.W. view of the Plas Newydd monument, as an illustration supplementary to a memoir "On the Construction of Giants’ Houses, or Cromlechs,” by H. M. Frederick VII, King of Denmark, translated from the Transactions of the Royal Society of Northern Antiquaries. In the illustrations, the probable mode of raising massive blocks of stone upon inclined planes is set forth in a very interesting manner. In connexion with this curious subject, the observations of Mr. G. T. Clark, on occasion of the visit of the Cambrian Archzeological Association to Plas Newydd, in 1860, claim special consideration. He described the operations that he had witnessed in India,—the means of elevating enormous masses of stone by inclined planes of earth, and cited a tomb near Poonah, where the process had been employed under his own observation, in the midst of a large British station. Arch. Cambr., third series, vol. vi. p. 369.

Note 1. The ancient mansion, Llwyn y Moel, having been destroyed when the estate came into the possession of Dr. Bayly, Bishop of Bangor, 1616, the present name was given to tho renovated dwelling.

Note 2. Some further particulars are given in the Rev. John Lloyd's Collections (Caerwys MS.) printed by his daughter Angharad, with detailed measurements of the stones, differing in some respects from the statement by Pennant, giving also the present condition of the minor pillar-stones, and other details. Hist. of Mona, pp. 238, 242. See also Bingley’s Tour in 1798, vol. ii. p. 262; Pughe’s Cambria Depicta, &e.

Rude Stone Monuments in all Countries Chapter IV. Almost all the so-called dolmens in the Channel Islands are of this class. One has already been given (woodcut No. 11), and it may safely be asserted that all chambers which were wainscoted with slabs, so as to form nearly perfect walls, and all that had complicated quasi-vaulted roofs were, or were intended to be, covered with mounds - more especially those that had covered pas- sages leading to them. There is, however, a very wide distinction between these sepulchral chambers and such a monument as this at Pentre Ifan [Map], in Pembrokeshire¹. The top stone is so large that it is said five persons on horseback have found shelter under it from a shower of rain. Even allowing that the horses were only Welsh ponies, men do not raise such masses and poise them on their points for the sake of hiding them again. Besides that, the supports do not and could not form a chamber. The earth would have fallen in on all sides, and the connexion between the roof and the floor been cut off entirely, even before the whole was completed. Or, to take another example, that at Plas Newydd [Map], on the shore of the Menai Strait. Here the cap stone is an enormous block, squared by art, supported on four stone legs, but with no pretence of forming a chamber. If the cap stone were merely intended as a roofing stone, one a third or fourth of its weight would have been equally serviceable and equally effective in an architectural point of view, if buried. The mode of architectural expression which these Stone men best understood was the power of mass. At Stonehenge, at Avebury, and everywhere, as here, they sought to give dignity and expression by using the largest blocks they could transport or raise - and they were right; for, in spite of their rudeness, they impress us now; but had they buried them in mounds, they neither would have impressed us nor their contemporaries.

Note 1. 'Archæologia Cambrensis,' third series, xi. p. 284

Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion 1910. Perhaps no megalithic remains in these islands have been more frequently illustrated than the two standing dolmens at Plas Newydd [Plas Newydd Burial Chamber [Map]], in the parish of Llanedwen, and one mile north of the Church. Rowlands gives but a poor description¹ of them. He makes the larger capstone 13 ft. long, 9 ft. wide, and 3 ft. thick, and the smaller, 6 ft. long by 5 ft. and 2 ft. 6 ins. thick. Pennant supplies² a few more details. He gives the measurements of the larger capstone as 12 ft. 7 ins. long by 4 ft., and says that it rested on five tall stones. The smaller one he describes as 5 ft. 6 ins. long, supported on four stones. An engraving by Moses Griffith gives some idea of its condition in 1770. Bingley's account³ tells us that the larger capstone "formerly rested on five upright supporters but some years ago, after some heavy rain, the one at the back suddenly split, since which time it has been necessary to prop it with supporters of wood Richard Warner, in one of his Walks through Wales, 1799⁴ says that the larger dolmen seemed originally to have consisted of seven stones, that is, six uprights supporting an immense superincumbent stone, with its flat side lying upon them, this stone being 13 ft. long by 4 ft. 6 ins. broad, and had originally been supported by four stones, one of which had fallen from its proper position. Thomas Evans, in the Camb. Itin., 1801⁵, states that the larger capstone "rested originally on five stones, but one being detached or thrown down, four only bear its weight at present", the smaller one rested on three stones, the fourth having fallen down. Skinner gives no further details, neither does he mention the number of supporters: he, however, made a sketch of the dolmens. Pugh, in 1816⁶ says: "Sometime before I saw it, it was supposed that some of its supporters had given way on one side, which greatly alarmed the family; it was in consequence, propped up with pieces of thick timber, and this has entirely destroyed the effect wood was a very injudicious auxiliary to stone". In Evans' (Brayley and Britten) Beauties of North Wales⁷, the larger capstone is described as "resting on six uprights, four at the broadest end and two at the other end, two fallen stones lie underneath". Miss Llwyd, quoting from her father's MSS.⁸, says the larger capstone is 12 ft. 7 ins. by 11 ft. and 4 ft. thick, the north end supported by four stones or perhaps three, the middle one being split. She also quotes from Monumenta Antiqua, where it is stated that this capstone was apparently supported years ago by five tall stones near the upper end, of which only three then remained.

Note 1. H. R., p. 47.

Note 2. T. P., ii, p. 236.

Note 3. W. B., p. 202.

Note 4. R. W., p. 297.

Note 5. T.E. p. 370.

Note 6. E.P., p. 277.

Note 7. p. 282.

Note 8. A. Ld., p. 239.