Carreg Coetan Arthur

Also known as:
Carreg Coetan
Nearest town:
Fishguard (10km WSW)
OS reference:
SN060394
OS sheet:
145
Latitude:
52° 1' 6.84 N
Longitude:
4° 49' 39.46 W

Images

Image of Carreg Coetan Arthur (Dolmen / Quoit / Cromlech) by A R Cane

Almost too cute for words....with a few associated stones in the foreground.

Image credit: A R Cane
A R Cane
A R Cane Jun 1, 2015
Image of Carreg Coetan Arthur (Dolmen / Quoit / Cromlech) by A R Cane

Another one for the collection and positively ‘porcini-like’.

Image credit: A R Cane
A R Cane
A R Cane Jun 1, 2015
Image of Carreg Coetan Arthur (Dolmen / Quoit / Cromlech) by thesweetcheat

What a superb dolmen, despite the slightly odd suburban setting.

Image credit: A. Brookes (22.9.2014)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Nov 13, 2014
Image of Carreg Coetan Arthur (Dolmen / Quoit / Cromlech) by thesweetcheat

Early autumn, early evening, the perfect end for a long walk.

Image credit: A. Brookes (21.9.2014)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Nov 5, 2014
Image of Carreg Coetan Arthur (Dolmen / Quoit / Cromlech) by thesweetcheat

I do like a nice bit of heavy duty signage, none of your flimsy multimedia info boards here.

Image credit: A. Brookes (21.9.2014)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Nov 5, 2014
Image of Carreg Coetan Arthur (Dolmen / Quoit / Cromlech) by postman

Hadn’t intended a visit, but who can resist.

Image credit: Chris Bickerton
postman
postman Apr 12, 2012
Image of Carreg Coetan Arthur (Dolmen / Quoit / Cromlech) by postman

Despite all the uprights only two are actually supporting the hefty capstone.

Image credit: Chris Bickerton
postman
postman Apr 12, 2012
Image of Carreg Coetan Arthur (Dolmen / Quoit / Cromlech) by GLADMAN

Note the beautiful red lichen... and Carn Ingli (I think)

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN May 6, 2010
Image of Carreg Coetan Arthur (Dolmen / Quoit / Cromlech) by postman

02.30 am......
What does the 0 stand for ?

Image credit: Chris Bickerton
postman
postman Sep 23, 2009
Image of Carreg Coetan Arthur (Dolmen / Quoit / Cromlech) by postman

02.30 am.........
0h my god its early (or is that late)

Image credit: Chris Bickerton
postman
postman Sep 23, 2009
Image of Carreg Coetan Arthur (Dolmen / Quoit / Cromlech) by GLADMAN

A perfect little dolmen... or as the Welsh call them, ‘cromlech’.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Aug 22, 2009
Image of Carreg Coetan Arthur (Dolmen / Quoit / Cromlech) by Moth

You just have to have someone in shot, to show how tiny this thing is...even if they try to hide. Capstone’s a hefty bugger though!

Image credit: Tim Clark
Moth
Moth Sep 3, 2003
Image of Carreg Coetan Arthur (Dolmen / Quoit / Cromlech) by ocifant

Idiots have scratched their initials in the lichen. Grr.

Image credit: ALan S>
ocifant
ocifant Jul 6, 2003
Image of Carreg Coetan Arthur (Dolmen / Quoit / Cromlech) by Jane

Cleo peers in to marvel at the tiny gap between capstone and upright....

Jane
Jane Jun 3, 2003
Image of Carreg Coetan Arthur (Dolmen / Quoit / Cromlech) by Jane

A rather crappy sketch from my sketchbook. This does NOT do it justice. It was better when it was a pencil drawing, before I laid the washes down.

Jane
Jane May 31, 2003
Image of Carreg Coetan Arthur (Dolmen / Quoit / Cromlech) by Kammer

Taken 24th May 2003: From the west, showing just how close modern development has come to the monument.

Image credit: Simon Marshall
Kammer
Kammer May 30, 2003
Image of Carreg Coetan Arthur (Dolmen / Quoit / Cromlech) by Kammer

Taken 24th May 2003: The chamber from the south west, with Jane sketching in the background and the boys behind the cahmber.

Image credit: Simon Marshall
Kammer
Kammer May 30, 2003
Image of Carreg Coetan Arthur (Dolmen / Quoit / Cromlech) by Kammer

Taken 5th October 2002: The lichen on the capstone was beautiful, so I thought I’d try and capture the colour of it for posterity. On the horizon you can see Mynydd Carningli which is scattered with sites, including an Iron Age hill fort on the summit.

[Since I took this photo, someone has vandalised the lichen with graffiti].

Image credit: Simon Marshall
Kammer
Kammer Oct 10, 2002
Image of Carreg Coetan Arthur (Dolmen / Quoit / Cromlech) by Kammer

Taken 5th October 2002: I’m surprised that nobody has mentioned this yet, but the capstone is held up by only two of the uprights. Here’s the proof that not everyone is pulling their weight.

Image credit: Simon Marshall
Kammer
Kammer Oct 10, 2002
Image of Carreg Coetan Arthur (Dolmen / Quoit / Cromlech) by Big Al

I know it’s only flare but it was electric here.

Image credit: Al Davies
Big Al
Big Al Sep 2, 2002

Articles

Carreg Coetan Arthur

ruskus
ruskus Aug 25, 2010

I was torn between feeling a bit sad for this small, but sturdy-looking dolmen, overwhelmed by the nearby bungalows, making it look like a puppy put out in the backyard, or admiring its determination to hold its ground and ignore its neighbours.

It’s a lovely, lovely dolmen, but it was hard to feel a sense of place, however much I tried to focus up towards Carn Ingli.

Carreg Coetan Arthur

C
CARL Mar 19, 2010

Park on the main road and take the short walk up a ‘resident’s only’ small walk. The site is on your right hand side behind the houses on the main raod. A lovely little place despite being in the middle of a residential area. Still, I imagine the stones will be here longer than the houses?!

Carreg Coetan Arthur

moss
moss May 27, 2007

When people write about this small dolmen they talk of mushrooms and fairies, and it does indeed sit tranquilly in its own little garden surrounded by a surburban small settlement of bungalows. Coetan Arthur was excavated in 1981, there had been a build up of plough soil over the centuries and in fact, the stones would have had another metre added to their height originally, making them much taller than they are today. There are four stones theoretically supporting the capstones, but only two are in contact.
One of the marvellous things about neolithic builders, is their ability to balance a huge capstone on a fine point. Think of a stiletto heel, its fine point bringing all that excruciating pain on to someone’s foot, the weight of a person concentrated on a small round five pence bit. So it is with the capstone pressing its enormous weight down, thrusting it through the upright to secure thousands of years permanency – it gives one pause for thought.
Carreg Coetan Arthur is low-lying, just eight metres above sea level, close to the Afon Nyer estuary and about half a mile from the coast. To the south is Carningli, and the usual legend has been attributed to the stones, that they were thrown from the summit of the mountain. According to George Nash, the capstone when aligned with Carningli peak seems to match it.
Turning to N.P.Figgis on the subject, he cites a recent excavation which gives Carreg Coetan Arthur a somewhat different history. It had been presumed up till recently that the tomb had a closing ‘portal door’ and that its corresponding upright stone had disappeared, it was in fact an ‘H’ shaped portal dolmen similar to Pentre Ifan. It seems though that there never was a third stone, so no portal door. An arc of small stones had been laid like a kerb to the south round the remains of the mound, and between it and the now supposed ‘front’ of the chamber a space had been cleared. In front of the chamber had been a platform with some pottery and ‘clumps’ of cremated bone.
Radio-carbon dating gives the early date of 3500 years old for the construction – middle neolithic. But also inside the chamber there had been found much later Grooved Ware and Beaker Ware, showing that it had been in use over a long period of time.
Figgis goes on to speculate that perhaps we should not fall into the easy trap of labelling these sites as chambered tombs, but that they may have had a mulitiplicity of functions, which is little understood today.
refs; Neolithic Sites of Cards.Carms.Pembs.by Geo.Children and Geo.Nash; 1997 Logaston Press.
Prehistoric Presili (a Field Guide) N.P.Figgis 2001 Atelier Production

Carreg Coetan Arthur

treaclechops
treaclechops Aug 30, 2003

This exquisite little dolmen sits within its own enclosure; truly a construction imbued with faerie magick . . . words really aren’t enough. The mellow Andy and I visited on a sunny afternoon, the first high shadows creeping across the capstone. . . dappled light from the holly and ash trees at the rear of the cromlech was falling over the capstone, and the birds were singing vociferously. I shot a fair few photos . . . then sat on a very comfortable stone by the dolmen’s uprights, and gazed towards Carn Ingli. Swifts chased each other through the air, chaffinches sang, and the peace was sublime. This place is a rare treat. Later in the week, I visited it for a third time, again with Andy and my fabulous mother, who was very impressed with it indeed.

Carreg Coetan Arthur

Jane
Jane May 31, 2003

This is curiously wonderful and though I had seen it before in 1998, I couldn’t wait to see it again.

It has its own little neatly-tended lawn tucked away in its own plot between some very white, middle class holiday chalets. And yet, as soon as you see it, you realise you have entered fairyland, and the encroaching chalets cease to matter.

Enchanting, bewitching and tear-jerkingly cute, this little dolmen stands like a magic mushroom close to the Nevern river estuary, (from perhaps where the bluestones of Stonehenge were once floated down?) and points at the sacred mountain Mynydd Carningli.

I sat and looked and made a rather crappy sketch of it.

Go there. You’ll love it.

Carreg Coetan Arthur

Kammer
Kammer May 30, 2003

Visited 24th May 2003: While Lou and Alfie dozed in the car, the rest of us hung out at Carreg Coetan. Jane sketched the chamber from the corner of it’s little enclosure, her daughter chilled out and sent some text messages, I took photos and the boys ran around making noise.

We were there for a while (at least, longer than my last visit) and it was good to have the time to explore. The chamber isn’t especially complex, but watching it from different angles gave me some new perspective on the place. Mynydd Carningli is a big focus for sites in this region, and Carreg Coetan is no exception, orientated towards this sacred mountain rather than the sea.

Carreg Coetan Arthur

Kammer
Kammer Oct 28, 2002

Visited 5th October 2002: Surprisingly pleasant, considering the twee housing estate that surrounds it.

We parked the car in the road opposite (to have a pre-cromlech snack) and watched two visitors stroll into the site and walk out again one minute later! Presumably it wasn’t what they were expecting.

It’s pretty amazing how only two of the uprights are actually holding the weight of the capstone!

Carreg Coetan Arthur

M
mushroom si Jul 25, 2002

7.7.02

This is my first cromlech. What a cutie. I love this place, despite its setting next to bungelows, this place feels special like something out of a fairie story, im waiting for the little people to pop out. It is small and looks like it could topple over at any point. This is the sort of place were you could sleep and dream and be inspired. Love it.

Topics

What's happened to her head? 6
Kammer
Kammer
Jun 2003

Sites within 20km of Carreg Coetan Arthur

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