Visited 23rd March 2003: We drove up to the farm and asked permission to go and see the standing stone. The farmer was fine with this, and asked us to park in the yard. Here we were met by a big friendly horse who thought he was about to get his dinner (William loved that).
The stone is very near the farm, but approaching from the farm it's difficult to spot until you're almost next to it. I found this site rather charming because the stone itself leans at an extreme angle, and is surounded by farmyard tat (a tractor tyre, an old gate and a water tank). The objects around the stone probably protect it from livestock.
We spent a while at the stone, and came away with a a good feeling about it. Well worth a visit if you're in the area, but only if you don't mind standing stones that are barely standing.
Ironically it looks like Nant-y-Maen gets it's name from the nearby stream, which is itself named after the stone! Translating from the Welsh, nant means stream, and maen means stone. So the stream's name means Stream of the Stone.
The nearby farm also has the name Nant-y-Maen, so it's probable that this is the way it panned out...
1) The stream was named after the stone.
2) The farm was named after the stream.
3) The stone was named after the farm.
I suppose that the next logical step would be to rename the stream Nant-y-Nant-y-Maen.