Pentre Ifan and Trefignath

 

Trefignath, Anglesey, with the remains of the burial chambers and the last of the rubble mound.

Thanks to Chris Walker for posting (on Facebook) some splendid photos of Trefignath chambered tomb, near Holyhead in Anglesey.

The oldest of three chambers here was apparently built around 5,700 years ago -- that makes it one of the oldest structures in Wales.  The similarities with Pentre Ifan in Pembrokeshire are striking -- the portal is obvious, with those two massive flanking stones, and the earliest dolmen (more enclosed than that at Pentre Ifan) is rather battered but still standing.  See also the remnants of the mound, which apparently at one time covered the whole of the megalithic structure. The original mound must have provided the surface up which the capstone was hauled / levered until it was in the "right" position.

At Pentre Ifan there is a new interpretation panel which seems to minimise the importance of the rubble mound.  the gigantic capstone there must also have been manoevred up the slope of the mound -- but on the panel the capstone is shown on the ground beside the supporting pillars -- with no indication of how it was moved........

One of the interpretations of Pentre Ifan, showing the portal or entrance to the tomb and the mound, with the capstone exposed at the surface.

Pentre Ifan plan