Parc-y-Meirw

On the Six Inch O.S. Map, Pembrokeshire, Sheet x, N.W. (second edition, 1908), within the parish of Llanllawer (for older Llanllawern), on the right hand side of the road going east from the parish church, and about three-quarters of a mile from the same, is a spot marked "Standing Stones", these being in the hedge of a field along the road, another field adjoining being called "Parc y Meirw".

These stones are known as y pyst hirion and are traditionally said to mark the site of a battle, in which the defeated were driven south over some high rocks, known as Craigynestra, into the river Gwaun. Some of the bodies were carried down by the river to Cwm Abergwaun, or Fishguard Bottom. The folk add no explanation of the name Craigynestra, which may be for Craig lanastra.

In the Arch. Camb. for April 1868, in a paper by Mr. Barnwell, there is a reference to these stones, which are described as "a single line of stones of great size, which Fenton does not mention, although he deliberately pulled to pieces a fine cromlech near it". "Local tradition (says Mr. Barnwell) adds an account of a desperate battle fought on the spot, among the pillar stones themselves..... The height of the stones is not so striking, as their lower part is embedded in the tall bank of earth that does the duty of an ordinary hedge; but some of them are full sixteen feet long....... There were no traces to be discovered of any second or other lines of stone, so that this seems to have always been a single line; but although single it must have been a striking object at a time when no enclosures existed, and the present level of the soil lower than it is now."

[A tradition is] connected with that remarkable line of tall stones near Fishguard marked on the ordnance map as Parc y Marw, or field of the dead, to avoid which the peasants after night make an enormous detour to the left as one goes through Newport.. the story of the Lady in White haunting these mysterious relics, although firmly believed, may be a comparatively later addition to an earlier superstition.

During the course of the fighting, three Welsh princes - Trahaearn ap Caradog, Caradog ap Gruffudd and Meilyr ap Rhiwallon - were killed by the forces of Rhys ap Tewdwr of Deheubarth and Gruffudd ap Cynan, assisted by the Irish.