Yesterday we trekked up the mountain near Trecastle to visit the Nant Tarw stone circles and cairn. The Bronze Age circles are made up of small, rather insignificant stones and although fascinating historically and culturally, they were not particularly inspiring visually. However, the scenery was absolutely spectacular, with the Fan Brycheiniog face of Mynydd DuContinue reading “Mud, Stones And Ice Cream”
Category Archives: Travel drawings
Larks Hovered, Kites Circled, I Drew…
Out and about again today with archaeologist Dewi Bowen and film maker Melvyn Williams searching out ancient stone monuments. We had a tough walk up to a late Neolithic stone cairn on Mynydd Bach Trecastell not far from the little village of Trecastle in Powys. To be honest, the cairn wasn’t particularly interesting, I’ve seenContinue reading “Larks Hovered, Kites Circled, I Drew…”
Through Darkness To Light
Drawing ‘The King’s Quoit’ from another angle, I could see underneath the capstone, through the inky darkness below the huge rock into the bright sunlight beyond. The shape reminded me of being in a cave, looking out through the entrance and it occurred to me that the ancient people who created these monuments might haveContinue reading “Through Darkness To Light”
The Quoit Of The King
Husb and I went for a drive on Easter Monday, exploring some of the South Wales coastline that we hadn’t seen before, the lovely beach of Manorbier / Maenorbŷr in South Pembrokeshire. It’s a very ancient settlement with local evidence of flint microliths from the Mesolithic and Neolithic ages and this magnificent dolmen, The King’s Quoit, lookingContinue reading “The Quoit Of The King”
The Offerings
This is the third and final drawing I did at Arthur’s Stone on the Gower Peninsular on Tuesday. It’s the fastest and perhaps the most abstracted of the three. I loved the brushstrokes of the home-made walnut ink so much that I didn’t want to cover them so I kept the linear drawing of theContinue reading “The Offerings”
Follow The Bear
I circled Arthur’s Stone yesterday, making three drawings of this Neolithic monument. Although the popular English name links it to King Arthur (its Welsh name is Maen Ceti), it is far older than the Arthurian legend, which was written down in the 12th Century C.E. It is thought that the story of Arthur might referContinue reading “Follow The Bear”
The Pebble In Arthur’s Boot
Today we visited Arthur’s Stone at Cefn Bryn on the Gower Peninsular, a Neolithic tomb about four and a half thousand years old. It’s a very popular destination for primary school day trips in this area and there is always a steady stream of visitors as it’s quite accessible from the road. Legend has it thatContinue reading “The Pebble In Arthur’s Boot”
Birds And Burial Chamber
The final drawing from Thursday’s field trip visiting some of the many ancient stones of South Wales. I hadn’t realised how many there are across the country. Our ancestors left a huge amount of monuments across the Neolithic and Bronze Age landscape. This is the Carn Llechart chambered tomb, just a hundred yards or so NorthContinue reading “Birds And Burial Chamber”
Sleeping Giant, Black Stones
Here’s another drawing I did yesterday on my journey around sites of ancestral stones in South Wales, using carbon and white conte crayon onto Fabriano Accademica paper prepared with homemade walnut husk ink. We travelled up the Swansea Valley, past Ystradgynlais and on to Abercrave where we stopped for a few minutes to show theContinue reading “Sleeping Giant, Black Stones”
Stone Circle And Lark Song
Back to the ancestral stones today with a brisk walk up Mynydd Llechart above Pontardawe to the Carn Llechart cairn circle. It’s been a gorgeous day, quite warm and very bright and sunny, deep blue skies with no clouds. The larks hovered and sang all around us and we met some jolly dog walkers, despiteContinue reading “Stone Circle And Lark Song”
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