Dyffryn, Syfynwy, Henry's Moat

District: Dyfed (Pembrokeshire)

Ordnance Survey map reference: SN 059285.

Landranger map number: 145.

Latitude: 51.55 degrees.

Longitude: -4.49 degrees.

Architecture: Internal cairn.

Length of the major axis: 22.0 metres.

Length of the minor axis: 18.9 metres.

Height of the highest stone: 1.62 metres.

Shape: Oval.

Number of stones in the circle originally: 18.

Number of stones in the circle now: ?.

Impression of the site (10 amazing, 1 limp): 3

Burl rating of the circle: 3 (Ruined but recognisable).

Thom reference for the circle: -.

Astronomical alignments from this circle: -.

Excavations undertaken at this circle:

Details of any finds at this circle:

This circle is not in state care.

Access to the circle:

From the B 4329, 0.5km north east of the small village of Tufton and 14km south west of Eglwyswrw take a small side road south east and then immediately east (left) at a fork in the road just after the turning. The nearest parking place to the site lies 1.5km along this road.
In Aubrey Burl's Guide to Stone Circles (1995) it is suggested that the visitor take the road to Dyffryn Farm and then walk west for 230m to the site. However during my visit I encountered a PRIVATE ROAD sign at the end of the farm lane and no vehicles are aloud except on farm business. It was unclear as to whether walkers were welcome.
As a result I took an alternative route and tried to follow a public footpath that approaches the site from the south west. There is a clearing on the south side of the road close to where the footpath starts and it is possible to park here. However when I tried to follow this route I discovered the footpath was so poorly defined that I ended up well off course and at least 2-300m away from the site with no obvious route to it.
At this point I decided to try a third route to the circle. Midway between the public footpath entrance to the west and the farm track turning to the east there lies a large gate next to an old farm building. This is situated next to a farm track on the north side of the road. From here the track passes through a field for 300m and ends at another gate at the far end of the field. At this point the official public footpath crosses along the end of this track. The stone circle can be found just inside a field on the other side of the gate at the end of the track, it is marked on the OS 1:50,000 Landranger maps as a cairn.
There is very little room to park a car on the road next to the gate at the start of the track; the only other parking places nearby are at the end of the public footpath and the Dyffryn Farm road.

Description:

At first site the remains of the circle appear like a pile of rubble a short distance into the field and it is not until close inspection that it becomes obvious that this is the remains of a circle. The interior is littered with large and small stones in a disorganised array. The circumference is dotted with many stones of varying sizes although the north and east sections of the ring are the best preserved.
At the SE stand two tall stones 1.6m high that look like entrance or portal stones, one of them is leaning badly, the other appears to have been broken at some point and shows signs of being cemented back together close to the base.
At the north stands another tall stone also 1.6m high; most of the other stones are much smaller. One fallen stone lying close to the tall stone at the north appears to have two long, wide parallel grooves cut into it. Whether these are natural or man made is difficult to tell.
Dyffryn, also known as Henry's Moat after the near by village, is in a ruinous state but clearly recognisable as a stone circle, however most of it's original 18 stones have now fallen or have been disturbed. Even so it is still worth visiting but preferably using an official route rather than the easy farm track route that I took.

Dyffryn as seen from the north west.

The north west section of the ring is the best preserved.

These two stones at the south east resemble flanking stones similar to those of the recumbent stone circles of NE Scotland or entrance stones. A crack across the bottom of the left stone shows where it may have been broken at some point.

This stone lies near to the tall stone at the north and appears to have two large grooves along it's length.

Contact me with any queries or information regarding any of the sites in this data base.

These pages were originally automatically generated from Paul Kenyon's Stone circle database using fiendish megalithion technology developed by

Cut-Throat Technical Consultancy.