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5th of July 2019.
8th of July 2019.
10th of July 2019.
17th of July 2019.
This was the first day at Nant y Gaseg farm, near Pontadawe, working for Paul and Helen Tremlett. I went over with Olwen Pritchard, who has a BA and MA in Archaelogy, specialising in archaeo-astronomy, the linking of the lay out of ancient sites with the Sun, Moon and stars. It was a hot, sunny day, so we had good working conditions. First we established the best location for the circle, refining on the rough area that I had already established with Helen and Paul on a previous visit. We then found the centre, and decided to use a radius of 9 megalithic yards, 7.80 metres.Using this to guide us, we marked the cardinal points of North, East, South and West. We measured all of the stones that Paul and Helen had got for the circle, which were a mix of limestone boulders that they had found on the farm, long menhirs from a local quarry, and 2 beautiful shaped tall granite pillars, that had been drilled to use as gate posts. There is one quarry stone with a beautiful, smooth bowl shape into it, as it lay on the ground. We agreed that this would make a lovely recumbent stone, in the South West, with the bowl of rain water reflecting the light of the Moon. We planted some more flags to mark some of the sunsets and moonsets visible along the mountain that stretches from South to North West, then I went home, to collate the information and plan the circle.
Click on the images above to see more
Barry and I went over, with more poles and flags, to mark out the places for the rest of the stones. Helen cleared out the mass of clay and small stones left in the bowl stone, revealing it to be perfectly smoothly formed. Paul joined Barry and I in marking out the locations for the rest of the stones. I decided that we would put the 2 granite pillars at North and South, and then put “filler” stones, ones with no Sun or Moon alignment, on either side of them, which could be the smaller boulders. At Lammas the sunset should roll down the end slope of the mountain, and there will a stone there, whose other edge should tie in with the sunset on daughter Grace’s birthday. The question of where to put the tallest of the quarry stones, which is a lovely sparkly grey/black, unlike all the others, came up, and Barry and I both thought it would make a good outlier stone, one that sits outside the circle as an extra marker, and a guide in towards the circle itself. Paul and Barry went to a good spot in the adjoining field, by a spring, and when Olwen and I checked, it almost exactly marked Beltane sunrise, [allowing for a slight rise in the horizon]. This ties in nicely with the birthday of Bryn, Helen and Paul’s son, on the 26th April, and we made this an exact fit by doing some calculations for the rising slope and slightly different date. We then moved the 5 poles around the South end of the circle, taking them out to create a slight egg shape for the “circle”.This will emphasis the recumbent stone formation, of the bowl stone with 2 flanking stones, and Paul said he would make a mound for the bowl stone to sit on, to bring it up a bit and make it more striking.
Click on the images above to see more
When we were all assembled, Ros, Barry, Olwen and Paul and Helen, we started by Blessing the stones with a sage smudging, and with water that had collected in the bowl stone.Then we Ommed the stones, singing to them, and told them what we were planning to do. The first stone to go in was the North, which was one of the granite pillars.This went in well, and we aligned a groove in the top, from an old drill hole, so it runs North-South. Then the South stone went in, the other granite pillar, and a drill hole through this one also goes North- South. The East boulder was placed next, then the West, a low boulder that has lots of white quartz crystals on its surface. Next came the bowl stone, onto its mound. This went well too, but when we tried to place the other curvy stone [the chaise longue} upright beside it, as one of the flankers, it diid not want to go there, and so we left it to one side for a while. The 2 stones in the NW quadrant went in next, marking the Major Moonset and a filler point, nice and smoothly, then the matching 2 in the NE quadrant, and now there was a real sense of the circle coming into being. We agreed to stop then, and continue the following week.
After an awesome Full Moon eclipse the night before, we commenced work early, and began with another Om, and more smudging of the stones. Barry showed Paul how to dowse the energy patterns around the circle, which were already developing. Paul had brought round the 2 boulder stones for each side of the South stone the day before, so we started with putting them in place. Next came the 2 stones flanking the recumbent bowl stone, which went in very well, now we had the right ones! As each of the other stones had been put in, Helen had placed offerings of coins and glitter under them in the holes. She then placed her own, more personal offerings under the Major Southerly Moon set stone, [ the one on the left looking from the centre of the circle] and then Paul put his under the Minor Southerly Moonset stone, so they are each side of the Bowl. We then asked Grace to choose her stone from those that were left for us to use, and make her offerings into the hole.This went in as the Lammas/Beltane sunset position, which is marked by the the right hand edge of the stone.The sunset on Grace’s birthday, August 16th, is indicated by the left hand edge, where the sun will disappear into the mountain. Next we put the Lammas/Beltane sunrise stone in, after a nice lunch! This went well, as Paul and Barry got practised at gently but firmly handling these heavy stone beings, and manoeuvring them into the right position in each ones’ hole, so that the flatter sides were facing in to the centre. The SE quadrant was the next to do, and after some discussion we agreed that the stone we had placed at the West was too low, so it was moved over to the SE. It was also agreed that the Chaise Longue stone should stay as a chaise longue, in the SE, as a mirror to the Recumbent in the SW. Next to it went the stone we had brought over from the West, making this whole quadrant low, sit-upon stones. There is a large, low hill in this direction, so, no sun or moon rises can be seen, thus it seems appropriate to have seats here, from which to view the circle, the view and the Sun and Moon as they set into the mountain. Last to go in was the new West stone, a lovely pillar similar to Grace’s stone next to it. The circle is complete! And lovely! We went in for some tea, then came out to finish off with the outlier- Bryn’s stone. After Paul had dug the hole, Bryn put in his offerings, and then Paul and Barry carefully manoeuvred the stone, all 8 feet, 6 inches of it, into its place. It is located further up the slope of the land so it is possible to look down on the circle, which is nice. We then returned to sit on the Chaise Longue, and admire the Circle! We also discussed later, how the South stone can be used as a Gnomon,or Sundial. It should be possible to imbed in the ground a calendar marker. the Sun is always exactly South at noon GMT every day of the year, but is higher or lower in the sky depending on the time of year. A line, marked with special birthdays , could be shown, as the Sun reached that height on the line on those birthdays!
Click on the images above to see more
Nant y Gaseg farm circle

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Nant y Gaseg stone circle
5th of July 2019.
8th of July 2019.
10th of July 2019.
17th of July 2019.
This was the first day at Nant y Gaseg farm, near Pontadawe, working for Paul and Helen Tremlett. I went over with Olwen Pritchard, who has a BA and MA in Archaelogy, specialising in archaeo-astronomy, the linking of the lay out of ancient sites with the Sun, Moon and stars. It was a hot, sunny day, so we had good working conditions. First we established the best location for the circle, refining on the rough area that I had already established with Helen and Paul on a previous visit. We then found the centre, and decided to use a radius of 9 megalithic yards, 7.80 metres.Using this to guide us, we marked the cardinal points of North, East, South and West. We measured all of the stones that Paul and Helen had got for the circle, which were a mix of limestone boulders that they had found on the farm, long menhirs from a local quarry, and 2 beautiful shaped tall granite pillars, that had been drilled to use as gate posts. There is one quarry stone with a beautiful, smooth bowl shape into it, as it lay on the ground. We agreed that this would make a lovely recumbent stone, in the South West, with the bowl of rain water reflecting the light of the Moon. We planted some more flags to mark some of the sunsets and moonsets visible along the mountain that stretches from South to North West, then I went home, to collate the information and plan the circle.
Click on the images above to see more
Barry and I went over, with more poles and flags, to mark out the places for the rest of the stones. Helen cleared out the mass of clay and small stones left in the bowl stone, revealing it to be perfectly smoothly formed. Paul joined Barry and I in marking out the locations for the rest of the stones. I decided that we would put the 2 granite pillars at North and South, and then put “filler” stones, ones with no Sun or Moon alignment, on either side of them, which could be the smaller boulders. At Lammas the sunset should roll down the end slope of the mountain, and there will a stone there, whose other edge should tie in with the sunset on daughter Grace’s birthday. The question of where to put the tallest of the quarry stones, which is a lovely sparkly grey/black, unlike all the others, came up, and Barry and I both thought it would make a good outlier stone, one that sits outside the circle as an extra marker, and a guide in towards the circle itself. Paul and Barry went to a good spot in the adjoining field, by a spring, and when Olwen and I checked, it almost exactly marked Beltane sunrise, [allowing for a slight rise in the horizon]. This ties in nicely with the birthday of Bryn, Helen and Paul’s son, on the 26th April, and we made this an exact fit by doing some calculations for the rising slope and slightly different date. We then moved the 5 poles around the South end of the circle, taking them out to create a slight egg shape for the “circle”.This will emphasis the recumbent stone formation, of the bowl stone with 2 flanking stones, and Paul said he would make a mound for the bowl stone to sit on, to bring it up a bit and make it more striking.
Click on the images above to see more
When we were all assembled, Ros, Barry, Olwen and Paul and Helen, we started by Blessing the stones with a sage smudging, and with water that had collected in the bowl stone.Then we Ommed the stones, singing to them, and told them what we were planning to do. The first stone to go in was the North, which was one of the granite pillars.This went in well, and we aligned a groove in the top, from an old drill hole, so it runs North-South. Then the South stone went in, the other granite pillar, and a drill hole through this one also goes North-South. The East boulder was placed next, then the West, a low boulder that has lots of white quartz crystals on its surface. Next came the bowl stone, onto its mound. This went well too, but when we tried to place the other curvy stone [the chaise longue} upright beside it, as one of the flankers, it diid not want to go there, and so we left it to one side for a while. The 2 stones in the NW quadrant went in next, marking the Major Moonset and a filler point, nice and smoothly, then the matching 2 in the NE quadrant, and now there was a real sense of the circle coming into being. We agreed to stop then, and continue the following week.
After an awesome Full Moon eclipse the night before, we commenced work early, and began with another Om, and more smudging of the stones. Barry showed Paul how to dowse the energy patterns around the circle, which were already developing. Paul had brought round the 2 boulder stones for each side of the South stone the day before, so we started with putting them in place. Next came the 2 stones flanking the recumbent bowl stone, which went in very well, now we had the right ones! As each of the other stones had been put in, Helen had placed offerings of coins and glitter under them in the holes. She then placed her own, more personal offerings under the Major Southerly Moon set stone, [ the one on the left looking from the centre of the circle] and then Paul put his under the Minor Southerly Moonset stone, so they are each side of the Bowl. We then asked Grace to choose her stone from those that were left for us to use, and make her offerings into the hole.This went in as the Lammas/Beltane sunset position, which is marked by the the right hand edge of the stone.The sunset on Grace’s birthday, August 16th, is indicated by the left hand edge, where the sun will disappear into the mountain. Next we put the Lammas/Beltane sunrise stone in, after a nice lunch! This went well, as Paul and Barry got practised at gently but firmly handling these heavy stone beings, and manoeuvring them into the right position in each ones’ hole, so that the flatter sides were facing in to the centre. The SE quadrant was the next to do, and after some discussion we agreed that the stone we had placed at the West was too low, so it was moved over to the SE. It was also agreed that the Chaise Longue stone should stay as a chaise longue, in the SE, as a mirror to the Recumbent in the SW. Next to it went the stone we had brought over from the West, making this whole quadrant low, sit-upon stones. There is a large, low hill in this direction, so, no sun or moon rises can be seen, thus it seems appropriate to have seats here, from which to view the circle, the view and the Sun and Moon as they set into the mountain. Last to go in was the new West stone, a lovely pillar similar to Grace’s stone next to it. The circle is complete! And lovely! We went in for some tea, then came out to finish off with the outlier- Bryn’s stone. After Paul had dug the hole, Bryn put in his offerings, and then Paul and Barry carefully manoeuvred the stone, all 8 feet, 6 inches of it, into its place. It is located further up the slope of the land so it is possible to look down on the circle, which is nice. We then returned to sit on the Chaise Longue, and admire the Circle! We also discussed later, how the South stone can be used as a Gnomon,or Sundial. It should be possible to imbed in the ground a calendar marker. the Sun is always exactly South at noon GMT every day of the year, but is higher or lower in the sky depending on the time of year. A line, marked with special birthdays , could be shown, as the Sun reached that height on the line on those birthdays!
Click on the images above to see more