One of Wales’ most famous prehistoric sites to host open day later this month
Cadw is hosting a special open day at one of the most famous prehistoric landmarks in Wales later this month.
Bryn Celli Ddu on Anglesey is one of the most important and best-preserved examples of a Neolithic passage tomb in Wales, dating back around 5,000 years.
Set in a stunning location, Bryn Celli Ddu is actually two sites in one.
A henge (a bank and ditch) enclosing a circle of stones was built on the site in the early Neolithic (New Stone Age) period.
This was replaced later by a chambered tomb beneath a mound measuring up to 85ft/26m in diameter.
Inside, a long, narrow passage leads to an octagonal chamber 8ft/2.4m across, where artefacts such as human bones, arrowheads and carved stones have been found.
Bryn Celli Ddu’s most unusual feature can only be seen once a year.
As the sun rises on the summer solstice shafts of light shine directly down the tomb’s passageway to illuminate the chamber within.
The free open day on Saturday 17 June will feature tours of the site, exhibits, food demonstrations and a range of hands-on experimental archaeology activities for all the family.
Throughout the day there will also be live flint knapping demonstrations with flint experts Ancient Crafts and a bilingual archaeology tour of the monument with renowned antiquarian Rhys Mwyn.
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‘Unusual’ ! Fundamental…see Nabta Playa…
Ah Wales – Everything apparently happened thousands of years before the Romans, then nothing happened in the hundreds of years leading up to the Romans got here, then like magic again, nothing happened until the English came around. Wales is the only nation that gets told it’s history by foreigners. Foreigners I may add that weren’t even around in the periods in question.
This is true of lots of places/ people – the Romans named the Angles for a start, and much of European history is told from a Roman perspective; like a lot of history is known from colonial perspectives, from example little is known about the people that originally lived on what Columbus called Hispaniola – largely because they it was genocide. Almost everywhere gets some sort of history told by foreigners. Even people in Wales today who have always lived in Wales are essentially foreign to the people of 7000 years ago- with the ebb and flow of migration over… Read more »