Digs, Discoveries & Site 70-1

Site Number 70 Eryrys ‘Four Poster’ N.G.R. SJ 2014 - 5881

Location Bryn Alyn County

Discovered 2014 JDB

‘Eryrys Four Poster’, looking northeast (Significant stones far left) Plate 1

In 2007 W R Lloyd, trustees for Pot Hole Mountain (Bryn Alyn), gave permission for me to use a metal detector on their land. The intention was to cover areas that I felt might have been used during the Bronze Age and where bronze or even later metal items could have been mislaid or even deposited to collect at a later date. The first area that Chris and I detected over was the area I believed to be a Bronze Age circle (the Eryrys Circle, site 42). We covered the complete area inside and around the perimeter of the ‘Circle’ but it yielded nothing. When we first examined the area around the ‘Circle’ I noticed the 4 stones shown above (Plate 1). The spacing of the four stones somehow appeared too symmetrical to be natural but at the time I could not visualise or interpret how they might represent a structure of any description. Whilst we had the metal detector with us I detected inside the space created by the stones and also in between and around the perimeter, again nothing was detected.

October 2014: In 2014 whilst researching information about Late Bronze Age Circles I came across references to ‘Four Posters’ and was immediately reminded of the four stones that I had looked at in 2007 and decided it was time to revisit and reassess the stones and their layout. The four stones are located on the gentle north eastern slopes of Bryn Alyn’s most southerly peak, just above the old lead miners track from Pen-y-Coed cottage.

Digs, Discoveries & Megaliths Site 70-2

Description: The structure is made up of four orthostats that roughly form a rhomboid, each stone occupying one of the inter cardinal points of a compass. I have designated each stone with a number starting with 1 in the North East corner, moving clockwise around the structure. The largest boulder in the north east corner is now recumbent; in its upright position it would have roughly formed a square with the other three boulders. The collection of stones are all from local limestone that can be found scattered around the hill tops and slopes, stones 2 and 3 have been sculpted by water action with large fluted hollows at their base, similar to the stones found on the limestone pavements. Stone number 1, the recumbent stone would have been the tallest stone and would have stood 1.0 metre high, above ground level? (Its recumbent length is 1.13M). It could loosely be described as barrel shaped with a triangular apex. The remaining stones could be described as pyramidal with their obtuse points uppermost. As the boulders vary greatly in size, not only in height but also in plan view, it is impossible to form a perfect square. When plotting the position of the stones the apex of each stone was used as a trig point to enable an accurate plan to be drawn up (Fig. 2). Moving clockwise from the northeast stone the stones diminish in height, ending at number 4 in the northwest corner at a height of 0.37 metres, this grading of the stones is depicted below (Fig. 1).

Note: The North East recumbent stone is shown upright

No. 1 No. 2 No. 3 No. 4

Figure 1 ‘Eryrys Four Poster’ graded orthostats shown in sequence

Plan view (Fig. 2), shows the random and very irregular shapes of the 4 stone, this creates difficulties when describing with any accuracy, dimensions between the stones, the best that can be offered, is to say that the pitch between NE & NW is roughly 2 metres, the same as the pitch between NE & SE as well as NW & SW, the only difference is between SW & SE where the pitch is roughly 3 metres. The Northwest and Southwest boulders are aligned north-south, this could also be true of the NE and SE boulders, but we don’t know the original position of the now recumbent stone. It is interesting to note that the grading of the boulder heights follows a clockwise pattern. The internal space within the stones is close cropped grass, the undulating surface slopes gently to the east. In the western segment there is a large oval boulder that lies just beneath the surface vegetation, in relatively recent times this stone would have been exposed. Using a steel probe around the perimeter it was possible to get some idea of its shape and approximate dimensions, 60cms by 50cms. A Probe was also used at random places within the square but found the soil depth varied considerably from 6cms to 15cms, whilst outside the square the soil depth was considerably deeper, suggesting that something just below the surface was far from natural.

Digs, Discoveries & Megaliths Site 70-3

Plan view of the Eryrys orthostats Figure 2

North West North East Recumbent

South West South East South West South East

Eryrys Orthostats shown in rotation Plate 2 Digs, Discoveries & Megaliths Site 70-4

Research: Looking through old journals/books and web sites that referenced ‘Four Posters’, a number of observations became obvious, firstly there was a lot of contradiction of site records, with the same stones being given different heights, some reports gave the grading as clockwise whilst others gave it as anticlockwise. Secondly, there was a distinct lack of information, some sites simply said 4 stones, whilst other gave their heights and cardinal locations along with dimensions and a description of the site. What it did show was that there was no definitive method as to how ‘Four Posters’ were constructed, consequently they could be virtually any geometric shape that fitted the description of quadrilateral; square, rectangular, trapezoidal, rhomboid or kite shaped. In most cases the stones were graded in sequence, whilst some diminished in a clockwise motion others diminished anticlockwise. It didn’t appear to be of importance as to where the tallest stone was located, the records showed that all 4 inter-cardinal points had been used at one time or another. Their location could be anything from gentle east or west facing mountain slopes and terraces to hill tops and plains. Recumbent stones are commonly featured in the Stone Circles of Scotland, but only occasionally were they found in ‘Four Posters’.

The case for describing the stones as a ‘Four Poster’ was initially problematic, the stones didn’t exactly form a square, if anything they were more rhomboid in shape. More importantly, was the northeast stone recumbent or was it as the retreating ice had deposited it? If it was in its natural position then it was unlikely to be a ‘Four Poster’. There are however some common features that occur enough to convinced me that I was looking at a ‘Four poster’. (a) They were all quadrilaterals. (b) If a stone was recumbent then it was usually the case that it was the largest stone. (c) They stones were all positioned over the inter cardinal points e.g. NE, SW and not N or S (d) The vast majority were all graded (e) All were late Bronze Age (which would fit in with Lynx Cave & the Eryrys Horseshoe. The Eryrys structure has all of these features, but definitive proof would be needed to convince any sceptics.

November 2014: With such a variety of shapes and combinations of grading and locations it was difficult in this instance to say categorically that we were looking at a ‘Four Poster’. Friends I introduced to what I believed to be a ‘Four Poster’ were not impressed and viewed them as just 4 random stones in a field. The only way I could see to give the some credence would be to dig a shallow test pit adjacent to the central boulder. The depth would only need to be sufficient to expose what the undulating rock was within the four stones and at the same time give visual access to under the boulder. A pit was dug 60cms long by 25cms wide and to a depth of 20cms and was aligned southeast from the internal boulder. This pit revealed not only that the boulder was sitting on a pit of water washed pebbles but also that the undulations picked up by the probe was also a bed of pebbles (Plate 3) The pebbles are of mixed origin and are all water washed. Plate 4A shows a collection of pebbles taken from the test pit, Plate 4B is a collection taken Test Pit Plate 3 Digs, Discoveries & Megaliths Site 70-5 from the river Alyn at the bottom of the valley below Bryn Alyn (2 kilometres away) and show them to be remarkably similar.

Pebbles from excavation Plate 4A Pebbles from River bed Plate 4B

The fact that the central boulder was embedded below the surface of the pebbles suggests that the boulder has not been disturbed and if there is a burial beneath it, it has not been compromised by my excavation or any previous excavations and should still be intact. The extent that the pebbles cover the internal space between the Orthostats is unknown. It may follow the shape of the ‘Four Poster’ on the other hand they may simply have been scattered randomly within the stones and around the boulder. Alternatively it is possible that it is oval in shape with the internal faces of the orthostats touching the perimeter. The answer can only be revealed by excavating the whole site which I feel is not necessary to prove its credibility. Finally, every effort was made to create as little disturbance to the site as possible, on completion the pit was backfilled and the turf was replaced back to its original condition (Plate 5).

Before After

Plate 5 During Excavation

Digs, Discoveries & Megaliths Site 70-6

Notes:

Records show that ‘four Posters’ are extremely rare in , with no known sites in the northeast, and only two known examples in existence in the whole of Wales. The nearest is Hafodygors Wen, 40 kilometres west, near Llanrwst, Conwy, the other example is Four Stones, 100 kilometres due south at New Radnor in Powys. Southern Ireland also has a small cluster in County Cork which appear to be constructed in a trapezoidal shape. By contrast, Scotland can boast a whole host of ‘Four Posters’ with concentrations in Perthshire and Aberdeenshire. Documentary evidence points to many of them being used for ritual burials, some contained cremated bones and others contained . Before the excavation there was reasonable argument for it being a ‘Four Poster’ with much of the criteria extracted from the many examples looked at in Scotland and Ireland echoing the findings on Bryn Alyn. The discovery of the central boulder sitting on a pit of pebbles plus the type interior of the orthostats proves the structure to be manmade. At this point it is interesting to note that the pit of pebbles the pit of pebbles found under the central stone in the ‘Eryrys Horseshoe’ The original position of the recumbent stone is still an unknown and the intended shape of the structure is still obscure to us, but the excavation has proved beyond doubt that we do have the first known ‘Four Poster’ in Northeast Wales, its style if anything is more influenced by Scottish ‘Four Posters’ rather than Irish.

Significant Stones:

The position of these two stones are shown in plate 1 and are the stones that first attracted me to this particular area of Bryn Alyn. Their situation may or may not be associated with the ‘Four Poster’ but are certainly worth mentioning. They sit 6.7 metres north northeast of the NW (No. 1) recumbent orthostat. They were originally one large rounded boulder with a large crack running through its centre. The continuous freezing and thawing of water in the crack has eventually split the boulder in two, one half rolling onto its back the other toppling over and coming to rest on the upturned half (Plate 6). The stone lying on its back offers a large flat surface whilst the toppled stone offers a large deep crevice uppermost (shown in close-up Plate 6). In 2007 when examining the stones I found the badly deteriorated clavicle (Plate 7) trapped at the bottom of the crevice. The location of the bone has offered it a certain amount of protection from adverse weather but nevertheless has deteriorated considerable. Most of the cancellous, interior bony structure has been eroded away by water percolating through the crevice leaving just the hard, dense cortical shell of the bone.

Significant stones Close-up of crevice Plate 6 Digs, Discoveries & Megaliths Site 70-7

The clavicle from the stones shows a close resemblance to the clavicle found in Lynx Cave (Plate 7, upper bone), both are mid sections of a complete bone, in each case the proximal and distal ends are absent; the Lynx Cave specimen has been gnawed by a Wolf or large carnivore, more likely the former, the teeth marks clearly visible. The bone from the crevice shows crack marks along its length, these appear to be caused by ageing rather than the result of being gnawed by wolves. Under a close examination there are a few marks that could possibly be teeth marks, the result of gnawing.

Lynx Cave

Crevice

Human Clavicle from the crevice in the Significant Stones Plate 7

Dating:

Establishing a date for any megalith is challenging, stone circles and four posters are no exception. Excavation often reveals some dateable piece of evidence, a particular type of urn that has been used in the burial, dateable artefacts or materials that can be radiocarbon dated. If none of these are available then we can only turn to particular styles or designs to give us just a tentative suggestion as to the date. Four Posters are most commonly associated with the Bronze Age and to be more specific it is usually towards the end of the period during the Late Bronze Age when these more diminutive stone circles were constructed. ‘The Four Posters’ charted below were looked at during the research and are mainly from the later period in the Bronze Age, some of them dated with associated finds, others to local finds with an affinity to the ‘Four Poster’. The excavation of the Eryrys ‘Four Poster’ was minimal, enough to establish that the stones were orthostats and the structure was manmade. No attempt was made to find out the depth of the cairn stones or what was beneath the central boulder, as a consequence, no dateable material was uncovered and so its exact age will remain a mystery for now. If we go back half a century there was no inkling that Peoples from the Bronze Age had any connection to Bryn Alyn whatsoever. There was no evidence of a settlement and no other associated monuments. This all changed with the excavation of Lynx Cave (1962), when we recovered the gnawed fragmentary remains of eight in a stone burial chamber at the back Digs, Discoveries & Megaliths Site 70-8

of the cave. The butchered wing bone of a Black Stork ( marks ring the bone) that is contemporaneous with the human remains, gave us a calibrated radiocarbon date of 2,970 BP- 3,220 BP (Ox A 8070). A piercing also associated with the human remains gave a calibrated radiocarbon date of 2,845 BP – 3,050 BP (Ox A 27830) placing it in the Late Bronze Age. If we add to that the discovery of the ‘Eryrys Horseshoe’, a stone megalith that has all the hallmarks of being a Late Bronze Age circle, it is not unreasonable to suggest that we are looking at a megalith of a similar date.

Name Nearest Town County Comments NGR Hafodygors Wen Llanrwst Gwynedd SH 733-674 Four Stones New Radnor Powys Cairn SO 245-607 Robinstown Great New Ross Wexford Alter Stone adjacent S 811-291 Cappaboy Beg Drimoleague Co Cork - W 097-604? Goatstones Simonburn Northumberland Cup Marks on stones NY 829-747 Fontburn Morpeth Northumberland Cup Marks on stones NZ 032-364 Templestones Rafford Aberdeenshire Central stones NJ 068-569

‘Four Posters’ in Britain, referenced in the research

Impression of the Eryrys ‘Four Poster’ circa 3,000 BP

Further Notes: ______

Further reading:  The Stone Circles of the British Isles Aubrey Burl 1976 Plus a host of Web sites