Great Stone Project 2022
The Preseli Hills, in South West Wales, uniquely contain outcrops of a particular type of rock which has played a central role in a long time mystery at Stonehenge. A team of eminent archaeologists led by Professor Mike Parker-Pearson has studied Stonehenge and its ritual surroundings for a decade and believe a number of these outcrops in the Preseli Hills were ancient, stone age quarries where the smaller ‘bluestones’ at Stonehenge originate.
However some geologists dispute these claims. The mystery concerns how the stones travelled to Wiltshire and the site of Stonehenge from their origins 140 miles due west; were they pushed/pulled there by the stone age population, or did glaciation do much of the heavy work?
These photographs are of Craig Rhos-y-felin, one of the outcrops of dolorite rock on the Preseli Hills found at Stonehenge. The outcrop at Carn Goedog is considered another site where bluestones originated, but on the days I visited the Preseli Hills the weather was poor and the exposed, higher Carn was inaccesible.
The Preseli Hills are a small range of hills close to the wild coastline of west Wales. Despite their small size, they contain considerable atmosphere where a long ridge of exposed Carns rise into the often cloudy Welsh skies. Visiting them is a joy. Craig Rhos-y-felin contains all the emotion of mystery, legend and magic associated with historic Wales.
