New mystery at ancient Welsh stone
AMYSTERIOUS stone in the Brecon Beacons has become even more mysterious. Maen Llia is a standing stone about one kilometre west of Pen-y-Fan.
Standing at almost 4m high, its original purpose is unknown, though it is thought to date from the Bronze Age.
Because it is so visible from quite a distance, it is thought it may have been intended to indicate a trackway or as a territorial marker.
As recently as the 1940s there was some faint Latin and Ogham – an early medieval alphabet – inscribed on the stone, but the Welsh weather has since removed it.
The stone has long had a number of legends associated with it.
One says that whenever a cock crows, the stone will walk off on its own to have a cheeky drink in the River Nedd. Another legend says that it visits the River Mellte on midsummer morning.
Now, however, a third legend seems to have emerged.
Hannah Burton, 30, from Swansea, was walking with her children, AlysMiriam and Elwyn, when she came across the stone. She asked them to pose by it for a picture, but when she
got home her husband noticed something odd about it.
Hannah said: “We went for a walk to some waterfalls and we saw the stone and I asked them to pose in front of it.
“I couldn’t see it at the time because the sun was shining on the screen. When I got back I could see that the kids weren’t looking at it, you know what kids are like. But when I showed my husband he said, ‘That rock looks transparent’.”
Looking closely at the picture, the patches of colour on the rock align perfectly with the horizon behind, making it seem like it is see-through.
“There’s obviously a logical explanation, but it’s so lovely and magical to look at,” added Hannah. “This photo was taken as a simple snapshot, unedited, not filtered – just a photo where I couldn’t even get my children Elwyn and Alys to even look at me!”
And how does the stone stay standing up after 1,000 years?
The stone does seem to defy gravity, but it is likely that as much as third of it is actually below ground.