|
|
Hafod Dre Ucha. A Southern Lunar Major and Minor Standstill observatory. SH 8853 5371 
Synthesised image of the moon setting at the Southern Major Standstill circa 1800 BC from Hafod Dre Ucha multiple stone rows site near Pentrefoelas, Conwy. |
|
|
Multiple stone rows sites in Wales.
Antiquarian studies in the early 20th Century in North Eastern Scotland have identified over twenty examples of this form of stone settings in Sutherland and Caithness. Today a visitor will have difficulty locating six or seven sites still identifiable. In the records at Wick Public Library reference is made to two sites in Wales near 'Pentrevocles'. These are the only multiple stone rows sites so far identified outside of Sutherland and Caithness. The Royal Commission on Ancient and Historical Monuments in Wales have published a recent report on the Pentrefoelas multiple rows sites: http://www.coflein.gov.uk.co.uk |
|
RCAHMW site description.
Site Description: NAR SH85SE9 This is an elaborate stone setting made up of 130 diminutive stones covering an area some 16m square. The stones, small boulders and slabs no more than 0.2m across, are arrayed lengthways at 0.5-1.0m intervals in sixteen north-west to south-east rows, from 0.5-1.5m apart. A baseline of rather larger stones marks the north-western end of the rows and is aligned on a small Bronze Age type cairn to the south-west (NPRN 303306). At the centre of this baseline is what may be a fallen monolith. This is a large stone, 1.6m long by 0.7m by 0.4m. The date and purpose of this monument are uncertain. A similar monument lies some 600m to the west at Hafod-y-Garreg (NPRN 300898). John Wiles 30.01.08 |
| Field and digital surveys.
After a prolonged spell of hard frosts, when the hill grass and moss had been beaten down, a close survey of the stones was made by taking off-sets perpendicular to a base line established from the cairn centre along the line of most prominent stones. Stones survey by Tony Ropper BE, mining engineer and surveyor. On the survey of the stone positions this fan-shaped grid was created to a high degree of accuracy using a vector-based drawing program by John Smout the South London designer. http://www.jsdesign.co.uk |
|
|
Radius length of Hafod Dre Ucha stone fan. |
|
John Smout has found, using Macromedia Freehand as the CAD tool, that a radius length of about 140.6 metres, (170 MY), provides the best fitting plan for matching both radials and arcs to the survey of stones. This design picks up on more than 75% of the detected stones at junctions of radials to arcs.
This overall radius length might have been chosen to establish the extrapolation constant 4G for the Minor Standstill alignment at azimuth 235*. Mid Clyth stone rows, Caithness. Hill o' Many Stanes. The most accessable extant stone rows setting in the north of Scotland is the Hill o' Many Stanes near Mid Clyth, Caithness. This survey and plan is by Alexander Thom. A.Thom. Megalithic Lunar Observatories. p.152. 
|
Astronomical intent. The astronomical location of Hafod Dre Ucha stone rows site in the landscape is clear with strategic references to two hill slopes which closely match the rise and set angles of the moon when at the Southern Major Standstill in 1800 BC. The stone setting inhabits an unique place from which both moon rise and set at a southern major standstill are aligned with two fortuitously angled hill slopes. |
| Azimuth 145*.
The orientation of the axis radial of the stone rows indicates a mountain slope in the Berwyns range at 27.36 kms, 17 miles, where the moon would have risen at the orbital extreme termed the Southern Major Standstill around 1800 BC. |
|
|||
|
|
Azimuth 219*.
At this azimuth the superbly appropriate western flank of Clogwyn Carreg Ddu sits across the path of the setting moon when at the Southern Major Standstill in 1800 BC. |
||
| Base line azimuths 235* and 55*.
The design plan of the monument also contrives to encompass two further alignments- the points on the horizon where the summer solstice sun would appear and moonset at a Minor Standstill . These two astronomical alignments are indicated by the principal construction line of the setting, the base line, and form twin right angles to the axis of symmetry perpendicular to the base line. This axis aligns with the moon rise hill slope on the Berwyns range. Right-angled construction lines at the heart of megalithic observatory plans have been identified at several other sites:..the Station Stones Rectangle at Stonehenge, Wliltshire and Ballochroy, Argyll. |
| Azimuth 235*.
The base line is aligned to the south west on a small hill top named Foel Boeth and the position on the horizon where the moon set at the Southern Minor Standstill circa 1800 BC. |
|
|||
|
Azimuth 55*.
The azimuth of the base line to the east indicates the point on the horizon where the summer solstice sun rose in 1800 BC. Due to the proximity of the high ground here the rising point of the solstice sun is deflected several degrees to the south. There are no visible markers at this horizon position. |
| <<Home |
with comments or queries- powys@megalithicsites.co.uk