Carn Menyn
| Carn Menyn | |
|---|---|
Carn Menyn on the skyline, viewed from the north
|
|
| Highest point | |
| Elevation | 365 m (1,198 ft) |
| Prominence | 48 m (157 ft) |
| Parent peak | Foel Cwmcerwyn |
| Coordinates | 51°57′34″N 4°42′09″W / 51.95944°N 4.70250°WCoordinates: 51°57′34″N 4°42′09″W / 51.95944°N 4.70250°W |
| Naming | |
| Translation | Butter Rock (Welsh) |
| Geography | |
| Location | Pembrokeshire, United Kingdom |
| Parent range | Preseli Hills |
| OS grid | SN144324 |
| Topo map | OS Outdoor Leisure 35 |
Carn Menyn is a grouping of craggy rock outcrops or tors in the Preseli Hills in the Welsh county of Pembrokeshire.
The name means "Butter Rock". It is sometimes called Carn Meini ("Rock of Stones"), but this is a modern corruption of the original name.
Carn Menyn sits on top of the Preseli ridge, close to the stone setting of Bedd Arthur. It consists of an outcrop of white spotted dolerite similar to that of other tors in the area, and several other prehistoric sites have been identified nearby. The mountain-top setting provides commanding views over the Gower Peninsula and across Cardigan Bay to the Llŷn Peninsula.
Carn Menyn is believed by some to have been the main source for the bluestones used at Stonehenge. Sir Andrew Ramsey first suggested it as a contender in the mid-nineteenth century. In the early 1920s HH Thomas showed through petrographic analysis that many of the bluestones had come from the Preseli Hills, and in 2005 work led by Timothy Darvill and Geoff Wainwright supported the idea that Carn Menyn was the primary quarry. This is disputed by others, and Williams-Thorpe and others from the Open University have suggested that the Stonehenge bluestones came from at least twenty different places, with Carn Goedog about one mile to the west as the most likely source for the spotted dolerites.
Survey work between 2002 and 2004 by the Strumble-Preseli Ancient Communities and Environment Study (SPACES) recorded an enclosure on the upper part of the outcrop consisting of a steep-sided promontory with a bank of stones across its neck. Although only around 3,500 square metres in area the enclosure contains several dolerite outcrops, each naturally fractured into shapes that could be formed into columns. Semi-worked megaliths lay scattered around apparently having been simply levered out from the larger outcrops. It is debatable whether these "semi-worked megaliths" are prehistoric or recent, since this area has been used by the farming community for at least 300 years for the collection of stone gateposts, lintels and building slabs.
...
Wikipedia