Description1. An erect monolith, 1.6m high. Close by are three prostrate stones.
There are no other large stones in the locality and it is suggested that those described formed part of a stone circle, with a diameter of c.100m. Unconfirmed.
(source Os495card; SN03SE8)
J.Wiles 28.10.03
2. The site was investigated through evaluation excavation by Professor Mike Parker Pearson in September 2018 and shown to be the remnants of a large stone circle with several missing stones marked by holes or stone packing:
'In September 2018, we excavated five main trenches at the partial stone circle at Waun Mawn. These included the stone holes of two of the recumbent monoliths and revealed 12 further features extending beyond the ends of the arc. Six of these features were holes for standing stones removed in antiquity. Together with the four remaining monoliths, they were part of a former stone circle with a diameter of 110m. This makes Waun Mawn the third largest stone circle known in Britain...
...Dating of Waun Mawn is in progress. The only carbonised materials recovered from the fills of the stone sockets were tiny pieces of wood charcoal, mostly of oak and hazel. Some of these are large enough for radiocarbon-dating. The sediments filling the stone sockets are also being dated by optically stimulated luminescence (OSL). Significant gaps in Waun Mawn stone circle have been detected along the northwest (over 22m), in the northeast (13m), in the east (over 12m), and in the southwest (over 10m either side of stonehole 091). Similar and even wider gaps are known at Stanton Drew and the Ring of Brodgar and, to a lesser extent, at Long Meg and her Daughters and Avebury. Yet the gaps along Waun Mawn's west and south circumference may hint that this stone circle was
never completed. Of course, if the line of stoneholes had varied by more than 2m beyond the average diameter of 110m then they would have fallen outside several of our trenches. We cannot thus be certain that the stone circle was never completed. Only future excavation will resolve this.'
Extract from: Mike Parker Pearson, Josh Pollard, Colin Richards, Kate Welham, Dave Shaw, Ellen Simmons and Adam Stanford 2018. Waun Mawn stone circle: The Welsh origins of Stonehenge. Interim report of the 2018 season (unpublished). Accessed at: https://www.bluestonebrewing.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Waun-Mawn-2018-interim-report-lite.pdf
T. Driver, RCAHMW, 2019.
