Carn Llechart – stone circle

History

   Carn Llechart’s site is dated quite loosely for the Neolithic period or the beginning of the Bronze Age. It was built by community who have already moved to a settled, agricultural lifestyle, which has developed a sense of territoriality, inheritance rights, and thus a desire to pay tribute to their ancestors. It was also associated with conducting religious ceremonies and rites, which the circle probably served.

Architecture

   Carn Llechart is one of the largest stone circles in Wales. A circle with a diameter of 12 meters consists of 25 stones facing outwards. They vary in length from 0.6 to 2.5 meters, none of them is more than 0.9 meters in height. Inside the circle there is a small, shattered cist with a stone on the eastern side, but there is no stone covering the pit. A stone altar or a 5.3 x 2.4 meter flat stone from the top of the central cist is now about 90 meters from the stone circle. Probably there was no distinct entrance to the circle, there are no traces of the earth mound.

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bibliography:
Website coflein.gov.uk, Carn Llechart; Cerrig Pikes, Mynydd Carnllechart, Pontardawe.
Website stone-circles.org.uk, Carn Llechart Stone Circle/Ring Cairn and Cairn.