A 6000 Year Old Burial Chamber and an Outdoor Museum of Welsh Life

It’s the “Ultimate Wales Tour,” and I am not missing much of the country, thanks to Noel.  Today we visited three sites.  I’ll save the last for a separate post.

Just like Stonehenge, the Tinkinswood Burial Chamber crops up out of nowhere in a grassy plain.  It’s really hidden away, and if you didn’t know it was there, you’d be sure to miss it.  It’s awe inspiring to imagine this structure is 6,000 years old, assembled by ancient people in the Neolithic, or late Stone Age, period.  Originally it was covered with a mount of dirt, but over time that eroded to leave the stones we see today.  Researchers think the huge capstone, the largest in Europe, weighs about 40 tons.  Apparently it lay on the site, moved by glacial drift.  The Neolithic people dug down and placed the supporting stones and then moved or slid the capstone into place.  Clever people!

They placed the bones of the dead inside the enclosure, but they didn’t leave them there.  Apparently they took them out for rituals and then put them back.  Too bad they didn’t know “the leg bone connected to the…thigh bone, etc.,” because all of the bones were mixed up and broken when archeologists found them in 1914.  Thank goodness we visited on June 25.  It’s said if you spend the night in the chamber on May 23, St. John’s day, you’ll either go mad or become a poet. A weird combination.  I’ve no inclination.

Naturally I bopped my head on the capstone as I exited, but I wanted to be sure I didn’t meet the legendary fate of the stones. No worries.

After Tinkinswood, we headed for St. Fagan’s National Museum of Welsh History, a Williamsburg-like collection of traditional farms, houses, stores, and workplaces that depict Welsh life through history.  The buildings were moved from elsewhere in Wales and placed on the site.  I’d say it’s a “must see” if you are visiting Wales (and enjoy learning about its history).

One of the highlights was St. Teilo’s church. It was dismantled and moved from an area near Swansea in 1984.  The interior has been refurbished to appear as it likely did in 1530, before Henry VIII’s break with the Roman church.

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Ordinary church goers couldn't see much of anything going on at the high altar, but they could peer in through peep holes.

In the nearby Llys Llewelyn, or Medieval Court, the Prince visited regularly to collect taxes from his subjects.  Replicas of tapestries from the period adorn the walls.

I chatted with the guide at this site — a knowledgeable and very proud Welshman.  His first language was Welsh, but as with most Welsh speakers, he also spoke English.  Somehow the subject of King Charles’ recent coronation came up.  He said he had no interest in the Royals, considering the English conquered the last Welsh kingdom in 1282 and imposed their culture and language on Wales. 

As an example of English oppression, for years, schools used a “Welsh Not,” to prevent students from speaking Welsh.  Teachers who heard a child using their native Welsh placed a string with a piece of wood on it around the child’s neck.  If the teacher later heard a different child using what was considered the inferior Welsh language, he or she took the “Not” from the first child and gave it to the second, and so on.  At the end of the day, the child left with the Welsh Not received a beating. Sadly, we did something similar to Native Americans.  

Naturally the school house was a special highlight for me, despite the dire tactics used by educators in the Victorian era. Here’s another torture device that will make my left-handed friends cringe.  Left-handed children were made to put the fingers of their left hand through the holes of this contraption, preventing them from using that hand for writing. 

Need a few things to cook dinner? Let's nip into these old fashioned stores.  How about those Radium Sticks?  I’ll bet they zapped the dirt right out of anything!

St. Fagans constructed 3 ironworkers’ houses, furnished as they would have been in 1805, 1830, and 1905.

A tin bathtub was a must for an iron worker!

How about this Victorian “facility?”

I was especially interested in the Woolen Mill, since I believe my Great Grandfather and his family lived and presumably worked in one in Ystradgynlais.

St. Fagan’s houses many other exhibits, outside and in.  Here are some more that I visited.

A tollbooth

And the day held still more adventures!  We boarded our very spacious VW van and off we went to our next destination — Ystradgynlais, my great grandfather, Herbert James’ ancestral home!  I was beyond excited! 

Stay tuned!