Wanders in Wales - Mysterious dogs

Just got back from a fabulous weekend in North Wales- one of my favourite parts of the country but unfortunately just that little bit too far away for a regular visit.

This visit had a theme - as many stone circles and tombs as possible in 2 days of hill walking.

First morning dawned grey and misty. It was very late when we drove up the night before after a full day at work so it was a chance to see where we were and to decide what we wanted to go.  The weather although good for Wales,  wasn't good enough to go high. I don't enjoy having rain flung in my face or winds trying to dislodge me especially if the view is obscured by cloud so it was a lower level walk today.

Capel Gamon is a small village just above Betws y Coed.  The pub is sadly closed and up for sale but plenty of parking nearby.

First stop on the planned 12 mile walk was the neolithic tomb just outside the village. This is easy to find and helpfully sign posted from the road - well you could call it a road.....





The tomb is a chambered cairn dating originally from neolithic times but with the finding of some beaker pottery it could have been in use until the early bronze age.

The layout is similar to that of Belas Knapp in the Cotswolds  and has stunning views- they certainly knew how to site a tomb. You can just about see the circle of rocks marking the perimeter of the mound.





The site was "guarded" by a very friendly farm dog who insisted on a nice game of sticks before deciding he was going to escort us along our way. If in doubt we followed the dog who led us on to a neighbouring farm before taking himself back home.

At this point things started to get rather surreal. We hadn't gone more than a mile or so when we were joined by another dog. I have no idea where he came from and he started off in the direction we were headed. As it happened we'd made a mistake so we back tracked a few hundred yards and took a second path. Within half a mile the dog had rejoined us - taking the lead and looking back to make sure we were still following.

At this point the old tales of the Cŵn Annwn started to flit uncomfortably across my mind. Not much we could do about it so it was again a case of follow the dog! We dawdled a bit as I was collecting lichen for dyeing and the dog started barking to hurry us up. Eventually we got to the bottom of the hillside on the main road above Fairy Glen and the dog vanished as suddenly as he had appeared.

There are lots of tales of strange happenings in the woods above Betws and it seems I now have my own tale to tell.  The rest of the walk was uneventful if rather wet and boggy in places and despite  ( because of?)  the mysterious dog we returned safely to our guest house for a well earned cup of tea

Rousay Rousay Rousay!

One of the main islands, this is reached by ferry from the mainland.

We were bright and early for the first ferry just to discover that the booking office didn't open til 10 minutes after the ferry departed... However this didn't seem to be a problem. We were allowed on and bought our return tckets by telephone from the middle of the Sound.  The fact that we couldn't actually have our tickets in hand to show to anyone until the return to the mainland also didn't seem to be a problem ( and wasn't)!.

Rousay has a wealth of tombs, some though are badly ruined, others you can enter. Here are a few.

This is Blackhammer. A long  cairn with 7 stalls,  2 adult men were found here as well as the bones of several sheep. Total length is about 13 metres. The roof and walls here have been reconstructed too. From the outside it appears as a long grassy mound tucked into the hillside and overlooking the Sound.














Next we have  Taversoe Tuick. This is a two storey tomb and this is the way to the lower part. The ladder isn't fixed to allow you to move it out of the way once you've gone down it - it is very cramped at the bottom. Originally both levels would have been separate and had their own level tunnel entries- that of the lower chamber being 6 metres long.

There is  a third burial chamber  just outside the main tomb.

Moving on to Midhowe Cairn, this was by far the largest. Difficult to photograph so it's time for a short video - apologies for the quality. I'm not destined to be a movie cameraman!

Next to the Cairn  is Midhowe Broch. It is amongst the finest examples of a fortified dwelling built during the Bronze/Iron Ages.

Dating somewhere between  200BCE and 200CE it occupied an imposing position. Much of the surrounding area has been lost to coastal erosion. The broch seems to have been used for an extended period of time and interestingly some of the finds here include Roman artifacts which may have been traded for as the Roman's of course didn't occupy Orkney.


The Broch is situated at one end of the Westness Walk, considered to be one of the most important archeological miles in Scotland. It spans settlements from the first stone age settlers, the Pictish Iron Age, the Viking invaders, the period of the earls and the crofting times.

Not quite finished with Rousay yet. This is the Knowe of  Yarso - another long  chambered cairn. The remains of 29 individuals were found here along with animal bones and late neolithic/early bronze age pottery