LAND OF LEGENDS
the best-preserved world.
It has an impressive surrounding main stone rampart, built from rock outcrops.
Inside 150 round, rectangular and D-shaped huts were built. There is a possible Bronze Age cairn at its highest east end. hillforts in the
SULTAN THE PIT PONY
Three years in the making, from the ground it appears to be an unusual set of small, misshapen hills adorned with strange metal furnishing on the site of the old Penallta Colliery.
But from the sky, an astonishing 200-metre earthwork sculpture emerges – a majestic tribute to the famed pit ponies of Wales.
Sultan was designed to serve a dual purpose. As well as a path for walkers trailing along Sultan’s spine, a seating area in its giant nostril and a bench in its ear, the imposing mass of the sculpture acts as a wind break to protect the Parc Penallta events area adjacent to it.
Giant hoof prints are scattered around the field above Sultan’s head. In rainy periods, these fill with water and become pools to attract wildlife to the park.
GATEWAY TO THE LAND OF THE FAIRIES
Said to be an ancient gateway to the land of the Tylwyth Teg (the fairy race), Pentre Ifan’s magnificent standing stones make it one of the grandest, and most mysterious, neolithic dolmens on the planet.
A collection of seven principal stones, the “Stonehenge of Wales” is a haunting, magical monument, and one of the most complete and dramatic stone dolmens in existence (a “dolmen” is a megalithic tomb with a large flat stone laid on upright ones).
Built around 5,500 years ago, the dolmen is made up of three upright stones, supporting an almost impossibly massive 5m-long, 16-tonne capstone. Constructed in a “portal” formation, the standing stones have been the object of archaeological intrigue for centuries.
Pentre Ifan’s outline frames the Carningli ridge and the Preseli Hills – source of the famous Pembrokeshire bluestone that built both Stonehenge and Pentre Ifan.
Owen Williams is a social media expert who has worked within the broadcast industry. You can follow him on Twitter @OwsWills
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