HAROLD'S STONES, TRELLECH;HAROLDS STONES;HAROLD STONES
Map Reference SO40NE
Grid Reference SO49930514
Unitary (Local) Authority Monmouthshire
Old County Monmouthshire
Type of Site STONE ALIGNMENT
Broad Class Religious, Ritual and Funerary
Period Bronze Age
Site Description 1. These three spectacular uprights are of a local brown conglomerate or 'puddingstone'. Alignments of grouped standing stones like them probably date from later Neolithic or early Bronze Age times and their original function is hardly understood. They may have been for ritual, though an astronomical use is not out of the question.
C.S. Briggs, RCAHMW, 20 January 2005.
2. Three massive, erect monoliths (source OS 495 card: SO40NE7). Geophysical survey (Hamilton et al. 2002 (AW 42), 105-7), has indicated the presence of medieval or later structures (possibly associated with Trellech borough: nprn 33177) and a c.40m diameter subrectangular ditched enclosure in the vicinity of the stones.
J.Wiles, RCAHMW, 18.09.2002.
3. The central stone of the three has been dressed to smooth its surface, and bears two large cup marks on its face.
T. Driver, RCAHMW, 22 Jan 2008.