I recall from various talks that the big flat-topped stone at Rhosyfelin is deemed to be unique because it is too far from the rock face to be in a 'natural' position, and because its alignment approx parallel with the rock face cannot be explained except as a result of human interference. Somehow the word has got around that it is a very long way from the rock face; not at all, since one end is just 4 m from the rock face and the other end about 5.7 m away.
As for uniqueness, the site is in a proper mess as a result of the excavations higher up the little meltwater channel; but we can still see three other elongated slabs that are approx parallel with the rock face and some distance away from it. The one closest to the bend in the channel is a very rough and irregular elongated slab about 2.40 m long and about 3 m from the rock face.
A second slab, of which we can only see about 1.70 m exposed, also seems to be aligned parallel with the rock face, and is 4.3 m away from it.
A third slab, about 5m further down the valley and also on the valley floor, is 2.20 m long at least. It seems to be very heavily weathered, maybe because it has been exposed at the ground surface for many thousands of years while the 'proto-orthostat' in the main dig site has been buried beneath solifluction materials. Again it is aligned approx parallel with the rock face, and it is 4 m from the face.
The archaeologists might argue that these three other elongated blocks were all aligned down-valley and parallel with the rock face because they were all carefully chosen as orthostats and were on their way down to a sort of assembly point or dressing area down on the main valley floor close to the tip of the spur. I don't buy that at all -- these blocks are highly irregular in shape, and to me they show that some rocks -- just some, out of hundreds -- have slid or rolled into positions well out onto the valley floor either with the assistance of snowbanks or else because of the sheer velocity of their falls, from previous positions high up towards the ridge crest.
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Hi Brian, as I mentioned in another post, in the book Mike says "it lies at the end of what appear to be three parallel 'rails' of stones set on edge, leading to that part of the outcrop about 15 metres away from which it has been detached. "
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