One of our favourite places ,high above  the beautiful landscape of the Dee Valley is the stone Circle  Moel Ty Uchaf.  Meet at Hendwr Bridge at 11.30 . Suitable footwear and outdoor clothing is essential.

OS reference :SJ 05613717.    The circle consists of 41 surviving stones and is around 12 meters across.

CADVAS Walk to Moel Ty Uchaf

Moel Ty Uchaf  is thought to date to the Bronze Age . It is presumed that the monument was the focus for  significant ceremonial and ritual  activity . Lack of evidence from any excavations on the monument hamper further analysis , however the surrounding landscape reveals possible funerary monuments in the form of at least two cairns and at least four possible cists. A platform is clearly identifiable down slope  south of the stone circle

Platform Cairn near Moel Ty Uchaf

The raised , circular platform cairn  identifiable as belonging to the Bronze Age . It is around 16 metres in diameter and may have once consisted of a ring bank of stone with a surrounding kerb . At some point the centre of the cairn was filled with stones to form a level platform . These monuments are thought to be ceremonial/ritual and sometimes funerary monuments . In other areas excavations have revealed cremations have been placed within the circles and then covered by the platforms at sometime in the history of the monument .

The platform cairn is found at OS reference :SJ 0564537112

CPAT  have produced a detailed walk around the area which takes in most of the sites which we will be visiting in the future .Details can be found at this link http://www.cpat.org.uk/walks/moeltyuchaf.pdf

Possible burial cairn near Moel Ty Uchaf demonstrating the possible ritual use of quartz

As you walk around this landscape look  out for the large amounts of quartz which is incorporated in the ceremonial and burial monuments . The use of quartz is frequently found in a ritual context throughout Britain and Ireland from prehistory to the present day