Bryn Celli Ddu (or Dhu) (Anglesey)

Also Caer Leb and Bodowyn Burial Chamber

OS Ref: 114 SH506701                Type: Henge/Passage Grave                         Disabled: Yes, with help.

Access: Good            By metalled footpath from the road where there is a small parking bay

It has been many years since I last visited this excellent restored chamber and I could not pass up the opportunity whilst I was in Bangor on a University trek. Bryn Celli Ddu started off some 4,000 years ago as a henge and continued that way for a long time - about 2,000 years - after which the henge with its standing stones appears to have been destroyed and converted into a burial mound.

The mound was excavated in 1928 after which it was reconstructed to the present form. The mound is somewhat smaller than the original which almost reached the ditch would have been higher.

At the entrance is a carved standing stone; the current one is a replica, the original being in Cardiff Museum. You can enter this chamber and there has been made a hole at the back to let some light in, though a torch would still be a good idea to see the detail within.

An unusual feature is the standing stone inside the structure, maybe left intact from the original henge monument.

The 1928 excavations revealed a pit next to the standing stone in which a fire had been lit, and a human ear-bone placed. This was then capped by a flat stone. Archaeologists think that the pit date is concurrent with the site's henge period. Although the reason behind this is long since lost to us, my personal belief is that the builders were asking their god(s) to listen to them and providing the means to be heard here on Earth. Fragments of cremated human bone have also been found in the monument.

Carved into one of the rocks are a series of marks, as shown. In fact there seem to be many of them and they do not appear to be natural. In fact there is evidence to suggest that the rock-art on the external stone also continues within, though the remains are hard to interpret.

The gate somewhat spoils the effect, but maybe it gets locked at times.

The right-hand image shows the craved stone outside the grave entrance.

Looking from the front of the site you can see an associated standing stone (ringed) on private land, in  an adjacent field. An impressive rocky outcrop also exists within that field and may have formed part of a scared landscape.

The footpath leading to Bryn Celli Ddu

In modern times this monument is well visited and is a place of pilgrimage and worship to some. Unlike may ancient sacred places, this monument has the practical feature of being dry when it rains!

Anglesey was the last refuge of the Druids when the Romans paid their visit to these isles, doubtless with the same excuses as we made to enter Iraq. Oops! Was that a political comment? History repeats itself - when the Romans did leave here, they left Britain in a weakened state and open to the invasions which later came wave after wave. They did not share their technology with even their closes allies here. (Only the modern world sells arms to potential enemies!) Note that I am not anti-Roman; in those days it was only a matter of who invaded you, not if.

Caer Leb

Nearby is this remains of a defended moated settlement, built on swampy land. This was build much later than the burial chamber - about 200-300 BC

The artists impression below, at the site, shows what it might have looked like.

Bodowyn Burial Chamber

Fairly close to Bryn Celli Ddu is Bodowyn. Fenced off in a field all that remains is this dolmen

Close by is a bit of messy surface and I wonder if this might have been another mound

Whilst driving up the lane to Bodowyn I commented that, if any place was haunted, this road should be one of them. There was, to me, something quite eerie about the lane which caused me to investigate further. I had noticed that the road was aiming close to a nearby village church. As I investigated I saw that whilst the road turned left, a track continued onwards. I am wondering if this may have been a medieval 'corpse road'?

A (later) look at a map shows the route, part road, part track and part footpath, leads directly from Melin Bodowyr to the church at Llangaff (although attending either of the two churches at Brynsiencan would seem viable alternatives as far as distance is concerned, if not parishes). As the track part crosses a stream, it has a large dogleg in the route, the modern main track ending at Dinam but joining the more direct footpath to Llangaff via a large u-turn. It certainly appears that the track is/was related to the church, even if as mundane as a quick Sunday route there.

Eerie trees!

The track continues straight on, crossing a stream on the way, before ending at Llangaff Church.

Visited: 21 October 2006

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