Penhros Feilw

Near Holyhead, Anglesey, Wales, UK. - O.S. Sheet 114, SH227809.

An impressive pair of bronze age standing stones, in the strong sunlight they cast dark shadows about them like twin sundials. Formed of Holyhead schist each stands almost 10 feet high (3m) and stand 11 feet apart (3.3m). It is quiet and peaceful here, I wave to a farmer tending to a horse and he waves back; a small dog, a terrier, jumps into a wheelbarrow as he begins to wheel it back to a nearby barn. The stones are covered in lichens of differing browns, greys and yellows, I'm nervous about putting my hands on these stones in case they should topple over - I always have the impression that stones like these have very shallow foundations, that they simply rest upon the earth.

There is an unsubstantiated tradition that these two great stones were once part of a much large, more complex monument - that they stood at the centre of a great stone circle. That between these two monolithic guardians was once buried a cist containing bones, spearheads and arrowheads.