From the 2017 "Land of Legends" campaign organized by Literature Wales and Visit Wales, with cooperation from the National Park and the County Council. No wonder people think the
place is legendary, magical or powerful......... I complained to Lit Wales at the time, but they
refused to change a word of their "citation".
I'm hopeful that the National Park and the other bodies responsible for our natural and built heritage will soon devise a strategy for protecting Rhosyfelin and other sites susceptible to "over-tourism". The simplest thing, of course, would be for the authories to put up a sign saying "This is NOT the site of a Neolithic quarry" -- and that would be the end of it. But I don't suppose that will happen. However, there is progress, and we must be grateful to the NPA and the heritage organizations for saying that they are aware of the need to deter visitors and maybe to stop criminal behaviour as well. It's now a matter to be dealt with on the NPA agenda -- so watch this space.
The form says that you can have a picnic on the stone. Is there really public access to this?
ReplyDeleteYes, there is at the moment free public access to the site including the "picnic table". As I understand it, there was an agreement between MPP and the National Park (and maybe the site owners) at the end of the protracted dig that he did not have to reinstate the ground surface as it was before. It's been lowered by maybe 2m. So the big flat stone, as the star of the show, was left exposed, and hundreds of tonnes of mixed up spoil remain in a large mound adjacent to the dig site, in effect cutting off that area from any futrure work by geomorphologists or anybody else. I think this was done in anticipation of the site becoming a scheduled ancient monument and one of the stars on the NPA heritage firmament........
ReplyDeleteSo I think the site was permanently rearranged with tourism and future guided tours in mind.
H.G. Well's "The Lost World"......but with an exposed Picnic Table instead of an escaped Pterodactyl.....and an increasingly Challenged Professor instead of a Professor Challenger.
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