The Croft Gorsedd Circle

 

On doing some more digging in a minefield of Facebook groups and pages on matters relating to the Bluestone Eisteddfod, and from talking to certain people who are well informed, I have small matters to report.  The stone circle at Croft is on land belonging to Croft Farm, and it was put up by the local Eisteddfod Committe with the help of assorted other organizations and lots of volunteers.  It was "unofficial" in that it was not put up by the main National Eisteddfod Committee, whose work was restricted to the designated eisteddfod site.  But one of the beauties of the eisteddfod is that it attracts hundreds of voluntary events and gestures around the edges, before and during the eisteddfod itself, stimulating a vast amount of creative activity and involving an army of volunteers.  So the building of the Croft "Gorsedd Circle" was one of these good-natured and slightly tongue-in-cheek events, planned and executed with precision in late June and early July.  

First, the site was chosen, and then a hedge alongside the road was removed in 2025.  As far as I can gather, the stones were donated by a farmer from the Mynachlogddu area (from private farmland).  They were transported to the site in late June, laid out and put into the ground in early July.  Later, the electric floodlighting system was installed by a local electrical contractor, and the flower boxes at the roadside were put in by Menter Iaith Sir Benfro.  This was all done slightly under the radar, but there was some coverage on the S4C TV channel, and in local Welsh language news media.  I picked up some photos from assorted Facebook pages........

The installation is meant to be a permanent reminder of the eisteddfod, which is fair enough, since the official Gorsedd Circle on the Maes was made of the glass fibre imitation stones that are installed and used and taken away again each year.   I doubt that any planning permission was required, since there is no change of use on the land, and the 11 stones were probably put up as scratching stones for the convenience of the farmer's cattle and sheep.......

 All we need now, to complete the story, is for a worthy  Cadw inspector to come along and to designate the stone circle as a Scheduled Ancient Monument, on the basis that it has great historical and cultural significance.......