(translates as “Field of the Dead”)

by Ann Eynon, Iseum of Branwen and Bran

This stone row lines up with Mount Leinster. When the moon sets by apparently sliding down the right hand side of the mountain into the sea; it’s bottom edge touches the top of Craoghaun Mountain (all just visible from Parc y Meirw on the Preseli Hills of Pembrokeshire). Then tomorrow shall see an eclipse, (either) lunar or solar, depending on whether the moon was new or full at the time of the sighting.

Parc y Meirw was built in the Neolithic (New Stone Age) period, about 3400 B.C. The Neolithic culture was agricultural, the first farmers “inventing” astronomy as their pioneer science, in order to set and keep a calendar.

From fairly basic sightings of sun, moon and stars, the making of star maps (the so called “cup and ring marks”), present an ever increasing evidence of the sophistication of their stone rows, rings and ellipses, which sit on ‘ley lines’ about the landscape. This meant they knew more and more about the sky, and could tell the time of year, even had some idea of time of day, using these apparently simple scientific instruments which are in a very real sense our first computers.

When I first explored these sites, their name was as big a mystery as what they were for. So why is a simply stone tow on the side of a Welsh hill called “Field of the Dead”? The most successful maxim in archaeology is “Ask the oldest person you can find!” Half a mile from Parc y Meirw was a tiny “clom” cottage (i.e. walls built of mud and lime, odd stones and dried horse manure) in which lived a ninety year old couple. I asked the lady, “Why Parc y Meirw?” She had no idea. “What about those stones,” I asked her; “You live close to them, what do you think they might have been for?”

She looked really scared; though they lay by the lane side, she had never in all her ninety odd years been near them - they frightened her too much. All she would say at first was “Ladi Wen” - the White Lady … which ghostly female would surely kill anyone she met as she wandered about the fields at night.

That was all she’d say. But later, once some work had been done on what the stone row was actually for, a possibility glimmered as to why and how it came to get it’s name, and its fearsome reputation. It must have taken decades even centuries, to make the observations necessary to get it working; only three chances in a lifetime with the eclipse cycle once every 18.6 years. Once it was set up, imagine the power of being able to tell the goggling populace “Tomorrow the sun (or moon) is going to go dark …” And the extra power of being able to add “But I will make it light again.”

Until, that is, an inquisitive peasant from down in the valley sees what you get up to, that it is just a matter of observation along this sight line. Anyone can do it!

So anyone who came up the hill, never went down again … field of the dead? And Ladi Wen, the wandering White Lady? … Surely the moon …

I believe the White Lady is the Goddess Cerridwen of the White Rock - of Stonehenge, Preseli and Leinster ranges. Cerridwen of the White Rock gives three drops from Her mythic cauldron - Inspiration, Prophecy and Shape-shifting.

There is a pattern in the awareness of the mystical landscape at this time. Ann has described the relationship of Mount Leinster, the Moon Goddess and Preseli. When the full moon was seen gliding down Mount Leinster, Black Rock and a third Mountain of the range, the wise ones of Preseli knew there would be a total or partial eclipse of the moon. The "Parc" was the place of the "White Lady", associated with fear of Her. Still today many local people will not visit the spot. It was from Preseli that the builders of Stonehenge drew the famous blue stones. Hence we have a connection between Mount Leinster, the Clonegal mountain, Preseli and Stonehenge.

When a Jacobite Chief was injured in the Battle of Culloden (18th century) he was told he would find healing between the River of Healing (Slainte - Slaney) and the River of the Oak (Derry, Daire), tributary of Druids. This site, a triangular shaped piece of land, has associations with prehistoric Mother Goddess activity.

We are in a Matriarchal Centre, as we are on the bank of the Derry, therefore connected to this Matriarchal site - like Castle Matrix in Limerick. (The late owner of that castle was an FOI member!) Castle Matrix was visited by my ancestor Sir Walter Raleigh and the Wizard Earl of Desmond - who vanished in the lake there! These two, Raleigh and Desmond, along with others, belonged to the Order of the Helmet (of Minerva), Goddess of Wisdom. All of this is situated in the region where, nearby, the rivers (Slaney and Derry) meet, to form the place of the Goddess Macha - known locally as the Crow’s Foot.

Note from Editor's Assistant: You can read more about the alignment of Parc y Meirw in the book by Alexander Thom, “Megalithic Lunar Observatories” in which he further substantiates the sight line from Parc y Meirw in Wales with Mount Leinster in Ireland, two sacred sites separated by the Irish sea! Suggested works by Robin Heath, that further detail these observations are, “Sun, Moon and Earth” and his latest book “The Measure of Albion” co-written with another sacred geography author, John Mitchell. Robin Heath presents an article online that further details his sightings and observations at Parc y Meirw and other locations at: http://www.skyandlandscape.com/Article%20by%20Robin%20Heath.htm