Meini Hirion – the Most Beautiful Stone Circle in Wales?

Most of the trips I make are well-planned in advance. I know what I’m aiming for, and what the highlights are likely to be before I’ve set off; this makes sure I have enough time set aside to enjoy each part properly. This does mean, however, that I don’t often meet with any surprises – which makes the few surprises I do stumble upon all the more special.

And there were few more special than this.

I’d come to Gwynedd for a couple of weeks, to do some hiking and exploring. I knew this corner of northwestern Wales was home to some of the most stunning wild country in Britain, and had started to research its connections with the culture of my own homeland. I chose to start my journey from Conwy, where an imposing medieval castle looms over the estuary of the Conwy River; there’s a train station here that connects very well with the North Wales Path long-distance trail. I followed that path over Conwy Mountain and up onto the moors. By evening, I had passed the farm of Bryn Derwydd (“druid’s hill”) and found myself on open country, where I intended to spend the night.

On examining the map in advance, I had seen that a number of stone circles lay scattered along the route; I thought that one of these might make an interesting place to lay my head down to rest, and so had planned to stop somewhere in the vicinity. In the event, this proved a very good plan indeed – the first stone circle into which I walked turned out to be one of the most beautiful in all of Wales.

The place is called Meini Hirion; the “long stones” in the beautiful language of Wales. It’s also often called the Druid’s Circle; a name given in the 19th century, when it was believed the Celtic priesthood was responsible for constructing such places. Archaeology subsequently revealed that this circle was raised during the Bronze Age and, as the Celts were believed to have arrived in Britain many centuries later during the Iron Age, the name Druid’s Circle was long deemed inappropriate – evocative, but historically inaccurate.

In recent times, however, the worm has turned once more. Although the construction of the circle was too early to have involved the druids, we have begun to appreciate that this later priesthood made considerable use of earlier monuments, with evidence of Iron Age activity proving plentiful in Britain and beyond. This should perhaps be no surprise; a place such as this would be as beautiful and as atmospheric in the past as it is today, the perfect setting for an evocation of the sacred.

The views from here are extraordinary. To the north, Conwy Bay fades out into the Irish Sea. To the right, on the eastern side, it is bracketed by the rugged promontory of Pen-y-Gogarth; site of an ancient copper mine so productive that it dominated the Bronze Age metallurgy of Britain. To the west, on the left, the edge of the isle of Ynys Môn is visible, flanked by the little shape of Ynys Seiriol (aka Puffin Island). During the Iron Age, Môn was the centre of the druidic religion in Britain – and likely for all Europe too, as Caesar recorded the Gauls sent their druids to Britain for training. For millenia, this landscape was one of the cradles of Celtic culture, one of the most important places in all of northwestern Europe.

What stories these stones could tell, if we could but persuade them to speak…

I will return here, at some point in time. There are some landscapes that demand a detailed exploration – and this expanse of moor, scattered with a multitude of ancient stones and jagged outcrops is most certainly one. I’d be very curious to learn more about the area; if any readers in Wales would like to share some tales, I’d be delighted to hear them.

For more on the mythology and folklore connected to the wild places of the Celtic countries – and on the relationships between Welsh traditions and those of northern Britain in particular – do have a look at my book “The Ghosts of the Forest”.

© William Young and Inter-Celtic, 2023. Unauthorised use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to William Young and Inter-Celtic with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.