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Sat 31st July, Megalithic Portal Festival of British Archaeology Ancient Site Hunt in Brecon area |
Andy B
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|  Posted 14-05-2010 at 17:14
Megalithic Portal Ancient Site Hunt in the Brecon Beacons
Part of the Festival of British Archaeology
Date: 31st July 2010
From: 9.30am
To: 5.30pm
Use the Megalithic Portal to discover prehistoric sites near you, and visit some wonderful locations near Brecon. Talks, displays and demonstrations throughout the day.
Megalithic Portal Ancient Site Hunt in the Brecon Beacons
We want to encourage individuals and families to visit, appreciate and photograph many of the sites we have listed but that are missing images or other details.
Bring along your photos and information to help us fill out our database. We will be based at the Brecon Beacons Visitor Centre all day with maps and lists of interesting sites to find and report back on – we also hope to have PCs and Wi-Fi access so that you can use and upload your photos straight to the Portal!
Depending on access, it also may be possible to visit and photograph some of the fascinating ancient sites on the nearby MOD training area, or perhaps those along the Epynt Way.
The Mountain Centre not only has wonderful views to Pen y Fan, it is well placed to visit many local hillforts, standing stones and other sites of interest - some of which can be easily reached on foot from the Centre itself.
Full itinerary of the day and further updates to be posted. If you cannot get to Brecon you can still get involved by going online and checking your own local sites by postcode or grid reference.
Brecon Beacons National Park Visitor Centre
Libanus, Brecon, Powys, LD3 8ER, very close to here.
Follow the brown and white tourist signs
Contact: Andy Burnham, Tel: 07910 900298, e-mail: andy@megalithic.co.uk
The Megalithic Portal at Brecon Library
Date: Sat 31st July 2010
From: 9.30am
To: 1pm
The Megalithic Portal team will also be at Brecon Library to start the day finding and researching prehistoric sites. Bring along your photos and information or come out searching with us. See above listing for full details.
Staff at Brecon Library have kindly agreed to reserve some of their publicly-available computer facilities for the morning so that volunteers from the Megalithic Portal can show local people and visitors how to get information on ancient sites close to their homes.
You will then be able to join the activities at the Mountain Centre (see details above), or head off to find and photograph some of the nearby locations the Portal still hasn’t got images for.
Please bring along your photos and information of your favourite ancient sites to help contribute to the information we hold.
See above listing for full details of the day
Brecon Library
Ship Street
Brecon
LD3 9AE
Contact: Andy Burnham, e-mail: andy@megalithic.co.uk
Text and Tel: (including on the day) 07910 900298
[ This message was edited by: Andy B on 2010-05-19 12:11 ]
[ This message was edited by: Andy B on 2010-05-19 12:12 ]
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TheCaptain
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| Posted 14-05-2010 at 17:45
Its a shame I wont be able to participate in either of these events, as I am away that week, travelling both weekends .
I look forwards to seeing and reading about the happenings.
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sem
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| Posted 06-06-2010 at 13:59
Here is a link to the Brecknock Society which may be of use.
http://www.brecknocksociety.co.uk/index.htm
I have a photocopy of a section their annual mag "Brycheiniog", Vol18, 1978-79, entitled The Prehistoric Standing Stones of Breconshire. This was taken from a survey carried out by the author (DJ James) in 1970 and lists all known, suspected and lost/destroyed sites. Unfortunately, all grid refs are 6fig or less.
Reference copies of the survey are held at National Parks Information Centres and the original draft of the article can be viewed at Brecknock Museum.
Hopefully, I will be able to get in touch with the society (there are no E-Mail addresses on the site) to see if they have any back-issues available or at least copies of the list of stones. Is there anyone here who has been in touch with them or has a decent contact in the museum?
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PAB
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| Posted 06-06-2010 at 21:00
Thanks for the information SEM - I haven't been able to get to the Museum yet to get hold of any information, but I did download the (now out-of-print) leaflet on ancient sites in the National Park. Would all of the former Breconshire be within the Park, or will this leaflet not cover as wide an area as the survey you've got?
Leaflet
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sem
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| Posted 07-06-2010 at 17:55
As a rough guide (ie I haven't plotted them all), with exception of Ynys Hir and Nant Tarw circles, all 56 of the sites in the survey fall within the following extremes -
SN 833 154 Saith Maen (Craig y Nos)
SN 833 310 Mynydd Bach, Trecastle (Y Pigwn)
SO 239 373 Hay Bluff, (Pen-y-Beacon)
SO 239 373 Cwrt-y-Gollen
The leaflet seems to show sites further West.
Hope this is of use.
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Andy B
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| Posted 07-06-2010 at 19:53
Hello, please do get uploading text of these sites to our master list
http://www.megalithic.co.uk/submitsite.php
which should help in planning for the day.
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amunptah
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| Posted 28-07-2010 at 15:21
Do you have a list of sites that you want to visit, so i can plan them out on my maps?
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Andy B
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| Posted 28-07-2010 at 19:54
I have a problem in that my wife is still stuck in hospital recovering from campylobacter food poisioning that hit her really badly. She was due to be out tomorrow but we're now not sure if she will be allowed out.
Unfortunately there is a fair possibility I won't be able to make it so we're trying to work out some contingency plans in case I don't.
Peter and I are guessing that there will be people still wanting to go out exploring even with me not there so we're going to carry on and not cancel altogether. However there will of course be less going on.
Peter Boyle (PAB) will be there with his camper van and also in the room we have booked in the mountain centre and will be able to project and print things out on the day.
Simon will still be able to give his talk although we may want to run with modified timing.
Do you know anyone else who would be able to help Peter out on the day as he's being dropped in it and could use some help.
We are working out some times that people could meet up for walks or
suchlike in the local area, starting from the mountain centre.
Very sorry about this - hopefully I will make it but in case I don't we have a plan!
Andy
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Andy B
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| Posted 30-07-2010 at 11:04
Unfortunately I will be unable to attend as my wife is still in hospital having taken a turn for the worse a couple of days ago. She has been in over two weeks and it hit her really badly. If it was not so far for me to drive I would make an appearance but at 3.5 hours each way (not including holiday traffic) a short visit is still going to be a marathon and I'm exhasted too to be honest.
I'm pleased to say the event is going on thanks to the dedication of the joint organiser Peter Boyle and our other volunteers. Simon Charlesworth (Sem) has a fascinating talk about local standing stones in the afternoon.
Please still come along, and te volunteers could really do with some help if you have any free time, it is a chance to meet up with other enthusiasts from all over the area.
More details here
http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=2146413847
Apologies again but this seemed a better approach than cancelling or postponing as you can still get out exploring the countryside on the day and we will still have our 'base' in the visitor centre.
[ This message was edited by: Andy B on 2010-07-30 11:59 ]
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sem
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| Posted 30-07-2010 at 13:37
I'm sorry to hear that, but I'm sure all MP users are thinking of you and your wife.
Best wishes to you both.
Sem
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BERNARDQUATERMASS
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|  Posted 30-07-2010 at 17:40
.....Yes.. I agree with Sem.
I hope your wife makes a full and speedy recovery.
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Andy B
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| Posted 31-07-2010 at 11:33
Thanks, Ruth is out now and improving, but still weak and I wouldn't have made the trip to Wales. Really frustrating that I can't be there!
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Andy B
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| Posted 31-07-2010 at 15:35
I've had a call from Peter (PAB) in Brecon, Sem's talk has gone well. Weather changeable but OK, some sun for the solar telescopes and generally some enthusiastic visitors. Thanks to everyone who's helped out, we should have some photos soon.
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PAB
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| Posted 31-07-2010 at 22:39
Andy, a bit of a report on our day:
We had 3 different phases really (after the one where we looked as if we'd be doing the whole day trying to demonstrate the power of the Portal without a link to the internet!) -
Firstly, we had a couple of hours during the morning with a core group of half a dozen punters who stayed throughout and who were joined by different people for varying periods of time in a fairly open/fluid session showing what the Portal had to offer at places near them or that they were interested in. There were some with particular interests in ley lines, some were clearly regular visitors to the Portal and some were content to just throw out names of sites they had visited – for all of these, we looked at what the Portal and other sources had to offer about them. At different times, we had 20+ in the room, and they all seemed to get something new to try back home. I definitely think it is fair to say that they will all have realised what a useful resource the Portal is - and some of them seemed determined to add photos to the Portal! We were also able to show them the various other sources the portal links into – especially the Coflein database for sites in Wales. They were particularly impressed with the range of images for sites they had visited themselves….especially when we took them through a quick tour of some of the ‘kite’ perspectives.
In the afternoon, sem gave an illustrated talk about some of the local sites and secrets, with particular emphasis on how many of the stones in this part of the Brecon Beacons seem to be linked. There was a fair amount of local knowledge in the room, but everyone seemed to learn something new, and his enthusiasm and local knowledge were clearly appreciated.
In between these sessions, people dropped in and were encouraged to give their postcodes etc so that we could see what sort of locations were on their doorsteps. There were several people from the Brecon area itself who were obviously intrigued by places near them they hadn’t been aware of – and some were mentioned that we didn’t seem to have on the Portal and which they were going to look & submit photos of. One family from the Netherlands was treated not only to details and images of sites they had passed near their campsite, but also to maps of their home town with images of long barrows they didn’t know about. Another family had travelled from Liverpool wanting to find out about stones they could get to with their 7-yr old, and a couple from Essex definitely planned to increase the number of Portal ‘hits’ for their part of the county.
The day was nicely rounded off for sem, cerrig and pab when Hamish (aka h_fenton) called in and showed us how he manages to take the wonderful kite aerial images we had been showing earlier. One passing Canadian archaeologist was so intrigued that he risked the wrath of his girlfriend to ‘tarry awhile’ and see how it was done and to see some of the resulting images on the Portal.
The real measure of whether the day was successful (in terms of how many sites Andy can turn from red to green with a new image) probably won’t ever be known, but from the number of people making sure they had the Portal website details before they left it will have been a worthwhile day – and we enjoyed doing it!
So, Andy – very sorry you could be there yourself, but we couldn’t have pulled it off in your absence without having the Portal there behind us.
Not sure we'd necessarily volunteer to do it again though....
Best wishes to you and Ruth.
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Runemage
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| Posted 01-08-2010 at 14:40
Well done everyone, sounds like a very enjoyable and productive day all round 
Rune
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sem
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| Posted 01-08-2010 at 22:26
Very enjoyable and my thanks to PAB for putting in the lion's share of the work.
Highlights of the day include Sonia (PAB's wife) and I suddenly rushing extra chairs into the room to fit about 25 people in, the ability of PAB to keep a mixed audience of people interested for over 2hrs in one session and my relief that "local knowledge and enthusiasm", as opposed to speaking ability, kept me and the audience going for one hour.
Would I do it again? Yes! It's the first time I've seen Cerrig in the same room as an archaeologist and both emerge without a black eye/broken arm or other injury to body or ego.
The only disappointment for me was not meeting more members of this the most Megalithic of Portals.
Sem
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AngieLake
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|  Posted 01-08-2010 at 22:31
Yes, well done indeed!
It sounds as if the day went off really well, thanks to your excellent efforts. Very good of you all to put in so much of your own free time to this.
Btw: Did you take some photos of events? (Or better still, did anyone film you on their camcorder?)
If I see anyone else at sites I nearly always tell them about Meg P, or ask if they're already a contributor. We don't have photos of all our contributors, so you never know who you're going to bump into.
Glad to hear Ruth is out of hospital Andy, and hope she will continue to get stronger and will be back to normal asap!
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AngieLake
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| Posted 01-08-2010 at 22:34
We posted at the same time then, Sem! I was just thinking that you might have 'caught the bug' for public speaking!
Well done.
Sorry I couldn't be there, but have had rare visit from brother and sister-in-law from Lancs. They had to come this weekend as part of another journey south.
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cerrig
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| Posted 02-08-2010 at 22:31
Now then Sem. I've nothing against Archaeologists per se, they are quite sweet in their own way (some of em), but I don't think I could eat a whole one, not with my problem. ( not at the same sitting anyway, and perhaps with a nice Chianti ,slp slp slp slp)
You would have thought a few more would have turned up to learn something useful. They'll have to wait till PAB organises next years do now.
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Andy B
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| Posted 03-08-2010 at 00:37
Thanks again of course to Peter for saving the day with your help Sem and others. We talked about what to do next and holding something around the NW Wales / Shropshire / Cheshire area seemed like a good idea. Something get-to-able for you all but also to open it up to others from the Midlands and Liverpool/Manchester areas. Does that sound do-able for you?
Andy
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