21st March 2024 - Carreg Coetan Arthur

Thumbing through photos again I came across most of Paul's photos.  He must have asked me to upload onto my computer for safety.  I first visited this perfect little cromlech in 2007 and many times afterwards.  Paul's photos capture the same images.  You will see how the capstone balances on the tips of the upstanding stones.

"When people write about this small dolmen they talk of mushrooms and fairies, and it does indeed sit tranquilly in its own little garden surrounded by a surburban small settlement of bungalows. Coetan Arthur was excavated in 1981, there had been a build up of plough soil over the centuries and in fact, the stones would have had another metre added to their height originally, making them much taller than they are today. There are four stones theoretically supporting the capstones, but only two are in contact."

How they lifted these heavy capstones on to the standing stones heaven knows, but it is still standing delicately balanced.  I have been listening to the Must Farm videos, several of which are on fabrics.  There was plenty recovered, but all black from fire and decay.  But interestingly according to the conservator finely woven (26 threads to the centimetre).  plants as well as animal wool was used, the weaving done of course on standing looms the warp threads weighted down by stones.  This can be found when all the wood has  disintegrated, the stones still remain in a straightish line on the ground.

We think of prehistoric people as miserable, ill-dressed with scruffy hair, well that maybe describe me, but often evidence unfolds of well made garments, specialty hairstyles and a comfortable way of life.  All the cromlechs situated along this Pembrokeshire coast had access to the sea, and land for their animals.  True the land was not much good for arable farming, but the gut contents of many a deceased prehistoric person showed a variety of seeds eaten.