Can I really believe that an enormous water monster – one that is reported to have a body similar in shape to a beaver and a head of similar shape to a crocodile – that once terrorised the lower slopes to the North of the Preseli Hills, Pembrokeshire, slaughtering livestock and destroying the property of local villagers?
I ask, because I recently walked those very slopes near Brynberian and visited the site where the water monster finally met his end – the Welsh call this place Bedd yr Afanc (pronounced Beth ur Avank), meaning grave of the water monster. Below you can see how Bedd yr Afanc sits on the Northern slopes of the Preseli’s:
Folklore is rather vague about how the monster finally met his end. One version, which broadly fits with the physical evidence on the ground today, is that the people of Bryberian tricked him into digging them a very deep well and while he was down there they poured rocks and stones on top of him. And so the stones that are clearly visible are the top of that filled in well! Another story suggests he was trapped under a bridge and killed – and the stones are all that remain of the old bridge; and yet others suggest that he simply died of old age.
Regardless, to the antiquarian, Bedd yr Afanc (SN10803460) is the only known Neolithic gallery grave in Wales. It is the resting place for our ancestors and the archaeological layout which remains today clearly indicates that about 4500 years ago a sizable stone structure with chambers leading off a main gallery (or passage) did once stand on this site. Below, pairs of upright stones, some now drunken and leaning over time, once stood proud opposite each other.
Now, I am really into the pre-history of North Pembrokeshire and I count myself lucky because I ‘get it’; I ‘feel it’ and so I embrace the emotional surge that accompanies the realisation that 4,500 years ago our ancestors expended enormous effort to build these megaliths and best of all, they actually stood on the exact spot where I took these pictures. And they looked at the hills and the sun and the stars exactly as I was doing. That really sends shivers down my back. Our ancestors covered the gallery grave with earth and it is believed that another circle of stones would have sat around the perimeter. These may well have long since sunk into the bog that surrounds the site.
By contrast, those unfortunates those minds are too sterile to ‘get it’ cannot, or worse, see no point in even trying to ‘get it’. Instead they just see another pile of stones in a field. Perhaps they are the victims of too much daytime TV! Either way it is their loss: this is a special place.
So I guess it’s a win – win for me: I love the idea of picnicking at the resting place of the Afanc but I am equally over-awed by taking time out at a gallery grave of our ancestors. As you can see below, the whole area is very boggy and several small streams need to be crossed to reach the site – certainly no shortage of water for a water monster to enjoy!
We were at Bedd yr Afanc at 6 0’clock on the last day of March. The weather was perfect: no wind, full blue sky, it was probably about 10 degrees centigrade and the sun was still four finger-widths away from the ridge line to our West so we would have plenty of time to get back to the car in daylight. There was no one else around: the only sounds were the occasional mewing of a kite or a buzzard and a blackbird singing somewhere out there on the vast plain. So we just sat there, soaking up the magnificence of the mystical Preseli’s – no need to make idle conversation, no awkward silence, not a care in the world. Time seemed redundant; an irrelevance. We were at one with our surroundings and ourselves and life felt good.
And, as my eyes began to close, my mind meandered back to my question – could I believe in the Afanc? …… I now knew my answer ….. and all was well once more in this mystical land that I now call home.