archaeology
Cynwrig’s stone foot

This week I finally managed to get to St Illtud’s Church in Llanelltyd, near Dolgellau, and see for myself the stone, just over three feet tall and chained up like a dog, that sits on a low plinth at the west end of the nave. In the dim light it’s very difficult to make out […]
Cwm Cadlan

At the centre of Penderyn is the Lamb Inn, with its blue plaque commemorating ‘Lewsyn yr Heliwr’, one of the leaders of the 1831 Merthyr Rising. Almost opposite, there’s an ancient signpost labelled ‘Cwm Cadlan, Brecon County’. It points to a lane off to the east. After climbing gently for four or five miles across […]
Eagle

In summer 1972 I made two happy discoveries within the Roman fortress that had occupied the centre of Exeter. One of them was human. That encounter changed my life for good. The other was inanimate. Its impact on me wasn’t as great, but it did earn a small place in the history of research on […]
In praise of Kathleen Jamie

The half of me that’s Scots lies buried, and usually dormant. It comes to life when visiting Scotland. But since my parents died, there’s less obvious reason to go, and we’ve not been there for a few years. Sometimes I daydream about moving to live in a newly independent Scotland, released from bonehead, vicious British […]
Maen Madoc

We’re on the south slope of the Fforest Fawr, north of Ystradfellte. It’s quiet and still at ground level, but above us clouds rush past from the north; some are innocent, others threaten rain. At Blaen Llia we leave the narrow road that descends Cwm Llia, and follow on foot the Roman road heading south-west. […]
Offa’s Dyke Path, day 15: Bodfari to Prestatyn

No kindness from the Path in the first section of today’s walk (we’re now reduced to three walkers). From the road, opposite a disused pub, the fingerpost points straight up a steep hill, before we’ve a chance to wake up the limbs. As the guidebook puts it, the Clwydian hills have not yet done with […]
Writing for affect

By accident I happened on four late-night radio voices discussing ‘consent’. Their focus was Samuel Richardson’s 1740 novel-in-letters, Pamela; or, Virtue rewarded, and Martin Crimp’s current stage production at the National Theatre, When we have sufficiently tortured each other, which is based on chunks of Richardson’s lengthy book. Both are tough reads, in the #MeToo […]
The Monmouthshire and Caerleon Antiquarian Association

1 Origins and foundations The first local archaeological society in Wales, the Caerleon Antiquarian Association, was founded on 28th October 1847. It owed its existence largely to the efforts of one man, John Edward Lee (1). Born in Hull in 1808, Lee worked from the age of sixteen in his uncles’ shipping office, but […]