634 



NA TURE 



[October 22, 1908 



so far as " cromlechs " go, though many may be still 

 hidden in " long barrows " such as New Grange, 



riip*t 



Fig. ■ 



Plioto. I'y Lmiy Lochyt;r, 

 -Bryn Celli Ddu (Summer Solstice), view looking S.W. 



which, so far as I can make out, is oriented to the 



Winter Solstice. It is fortunate for students that the 



state of dilapidation of Bryn 



Celli Ddu just shows the earth 



of the barrow gone and many 



of the stones of the creep-way still 



in situ. 



Mr. Neil Baynes, who has made 

 a careful study of this monument 

 and the literature connected with it, 

 has been good enough to send me the 

 plan of it, copied from the " Archso- 

 logia Cambrensis," in which the 

 orientation is 35° out. He writes : — 

 " The plan ivas 'made by Lukis, but 

 I do not know who twisted it into 

 the Arch. Cam. — certainly the arrow 

 showing north was not Lukis'. 



" The plan shows the creepway 

 parallel with the S.E. stone, which 

 was evidently the first set up, and 

 the subsequent arrangement of the 

 other stones. One can see how 

 the second stone overlapped the 

 first, and so on, until the entrance 

 was reached." 



BftVN Cl 



CroaniPUn.ra(jini f, 



jnJ N s't 35" E 



plan. There can be no doubt, I think, that it once 

 stood in the fairway of the aWee coiivcrlc for the light 

 to fall upon at the solstice — a kind of echo 

 of the Egyptian ceremonial of the " Mani- 

 festion of Ra," the cylindrical stone replac- 

 ing the statue of the god. Here we have 

 one case out of many which might be 

 named which suggests that what may be' 

 called the furniture of cromlechs is worthy 

 of a close comparative study. 



The cylindrical stone now in question 

 seems to be the counterpart of other stones 

 located in a similar way observed in other 

 cromlechs. Borlase, in his account of New 

 Grange,' writes as follows :^ 



" I am inclined to think . . . that we 

 may accept as true the statement of 

 Molyneux, that a ' slender quarry-stone, 5 

 or 6 feet long, shaped like a pyramid,' lay 

 along the middle of the cave in the spot 

 in which it is placed in his plan, and that 

 his surmise is probably correct that it once 

 stood upright. My view on this point is 

 strengthened by tlie fact that a pyramidal 

 pillar, shaped and rounded, was found standing up- 

 right within the chamber of the dolmen of Yr Ogof, 



Fig. 4. — Plan of Bryn Celli Ddu, showing the true solstitial alignment of the S.E. stone 

 and the creepway. 



There is a feature on this cromlech of great in- 

 terest. It consists of a cylindrical pillar shown on the 



NO, 2034, VOL. 78] 



Cefn 



Frr.. 5. — 'Jefn Isaf (Winter Solstice). 



in Wales (see Archaeol. Camb., i86g, 

 p. 140), which in form closely resembled the 

 pillar-stone called the Bod Fergusa, at 

 Temair. Such a stone could readily have 

 been removed through the passage, and its 

 shape, so suitable for a gate-post or for 

 building purposes, would supply the special 

 motive for its abstraction." 



Borlase (p. 450) gives a plan of Yr Ogof 

 showing that that name is a variant of 

 Bryn Celli Ddu. He also states that the 

 plan was made in iS6g by a Captain Lukis, 

 and therefore not by the Rev. W. C. Lukis, 

 to whose accurate work in Cornwall I have 

 on previous occasions directed attention. 



In the plan of a " cairn " (L), at Lough 

 Crew, given by Borlase on p. 325, another 

 similar pillar is shown prostrate, but occu- 

 pying the same position in the cromlech as 

 the cylindrical pillar of Bryn Celli Ddu. 



."Another similar pillar is also suggested by 

 the plan of the alUe couverte at Man6 Lud 

 given by Borlase on p. 450. 

 Isaf — another solstitial cromlech — is to me 



1 " Dolmens of Ireland," p. 355. 



