All over North Wales there are standing stones that have been in place for more than 4,000 years. Our ancestors put them up, and they still puzzle and fascinate visitors today.
Ancient Builders
The stones are thought to date from the late Neolithic and early Bronze Age (roughly 3500BC to 1400BC), so they went up over a period of more than 2,000 years. The people who raised them were capable farmers and builders, but we know little about their religion or exactly why they built these huge stones.
Anglesey alone has more than 120 prehistoric monuments, which makes North Wales one of the richest prehistoric landscapes in Britain. Most of Anglesey's standing stones are between 4,500 and 5,000 years old, older than the famous trilithons at Stonehenge.
Purpose and Mystery
Why did people drag huge rocks across the ground and stand them upright? No one knows for sure. They may have been used to track the sun, for rituals such as fertility ceremonies, or to mark the seasons for early farming communities. Some may have been route markers or boundary stones.
Most stand on high ground, often within sight of the Snowdonia mountains, which suggests the sites were chosen carefully, for the view and perhaps for spiritual reasons.
Where to See Them
Penrhos Feilw Standing Stones on Holy Island, Anglesey, are among the finest. These Bronze Age stones are about 10 feet tall and about 10 feet apart, lined up northeast to southwest, with views of the coast and Holyhead Mountain.
Bryn Celli Ddu, 'the mound in the dark grove', is an early burial chamber you can crawl into. It started as a stone circle and was later turned into a tomb.
Also worth finding are the Soar Stone, a tall stone beside the A5025 near Llanfaethlu, and the Llanfechell Triangle, an odd group of three stones south of Cemaes.
The Stonehenge Connection
North Wales has an extraordinary link with England's most famous stone circle. Most archaeologists are confident that the Preseli bluestones were deliberately moved from Welsh quarries to Wiltshire, a distance of some 700 miles. An effort on that scale shows how highly ancient Britons valued these Welsh stones.
Visiting Today
Walk up to one of the stones, put your hand flat on it and close your eyes. Four thousand years ago someone else's hand was on the same surface. Few things connect you so directly with the people who lived here before us.
All the stones are mapped and free to visit, though visitors are asked to respect the land and the monuments. North Wales has one of the most accessible prehistoric landscapes in the world, with its secrets still out in the fields and on the hilltops, as they have been for thousands of years.
